Almost 2 million people have fled Syria to Lebanon since the start of the conflict in 2011, out of which hundreds of thousands of children deprived of education, food and their most basic needs. As a result, a lot of them had to resort to begging in order to provide for their families, or were recruited and exploited by organized mobs (or sometimes their own families) to make revenues. These gangs usually distribute children at different strategic points and threaten them to collect a minimum amount of money or suffer dire consequences. This is why a lot of children beggars refuse to take food when offered and ask for money instead, and they follow you every where out of fear that they might get beaten up when they go back home. As a result, most of them end up working long hours in detrimental conditions and leading a catastrophic lifestyle which poses many risks on their physical and mental well-being. To make things even worse, some gangs are sexually exploiting these children or even selling their kidneys.
Should we help street children or not?
Child beggars have been present since ever in Lebanon, but their situation has worsened with the Syrian crisis as more families are inhabiting the streets and more children are being forced out of school to beg for their families, or are being exploited by child beggar networks, and this is quite noticeable in many streets in Beirut specially in Hamra where there are tens of families living on the side walks and child beggars all over the place.
Personally speaking, I can’t but help children I see on the street, no matter what their nationality is, but I always prefer to give them food instead of money because I know money is going to the wrong people. Some take the food you offer them while others only want cash and become annoying at some point, but giving them money will make them come back for more which is why I refuse to do so. Of course I wish I could get these children out of the street and put them back in school, but there’s little I can do about that and the only way to help is by spreading awareness on this matter and promoting the NGOs helping refugees and street children, or even doing small initiatives like the one LiveLoveBeirut and JouéClub did back in Christmas based on one of the pictures I took.
Who is to blame for this situation?
Both begging and child labor are illegal in Lebanon and the government is responsible for enforcing laws that prohibit exploiting children to finance illegal activities or for sexual purposes. Moreover, Lebanon is forced to abide by the Convention on the rights of the child that was agreed on in 1991. This being said, it is the responsibility of the authorities and mainly the ministry of social affairs to help get these children out of the street and back into school, and more importantly arrest the gangs that are playing a major role in keeping children on the street.
Sadly enough, this issue has long been neglected by the authorities and the only organization in Lebanon that offers a refuge to both Lebanese and non-Lebanese street children (Home of Hope) is not receiving enough funds to do its job. The organization, established by the Lebanese Evangelical Society (LES), is headed by Mr. John Eter, and offers kids a basic education, medical insurance and most importantly a loving environment.
What happened at Dunkin Donuts in Hamra?
A story has gone viral in the past few days about a Dunkin Donuts employee who “beat up” a Syrian child beggar and kicked him out of the coffee shop. The story spread before it even got confirmed and the picture of a DD employee that had nothing to do with the incident got shared somehow. Eventually, the employee who hit the child got suspended by Dunkin Donuts Lebanon and a police investigation is underway according to what they stated on Facebook, while Al Jadeed interviewed the employee and other eye witnesses who stated that the kid wasn’t beaten up as stated. Needless to say, what this employee did was wrong whether he slapped or beat up the kid and I think DD should have added an apology to their statement but I don’t understand people, specially Dima Sadek whom I respect, who are asking to boycott Dunkin Donuts because of that incident. How is boycotting Dunkin Donuts going to help with anything? When did boycotting ever achieve anything? And did they take into consideration the hundreds of families who are against such practices and working with Dunkin Donuts? What if the child beggar was a Lebanese or a Kurd? Why does it matter that he’s a Syrian?
Moreover, I can easily confirm that a similar incident has taken place in almost every coffee shop I’ve been to in Lebanon, and street children are humiliated, beaten up, slapped and pushed away almost everywhere in Lebanon. Shall we start boycotting all the shops? I think a smarter idea would be to mount the pressure on the authorities to do something about this growing phenomenon and help raise funds for concerned NGOs to help these children. I would also encourage journalists and influential people in the media to tackle this problem with the concerned ministries instead of focusing on an isolated incident.
Can we help Lebanon’s street children?
Lebanon has suffered the most from the flow of Syrian refugees, and the Syrian crisis has proven to be a huge burden socially economically and politically. The international help that we are getting is not enough to cope with the ever-growing influx of refugees and the biggest problem is that there’s a whole generation of children, victims of the Syrian war, that are forced to drop out of school and are destroying their future. This being said, the fact that there’s a single institution in Lebanon dealing with homeless children is unacceptable, and the work that the ministry of social affairs has been doing is less than pathetic. For that purpose, we need a new strategy to cope with this ever-growing problem and as it happens, one LAU student came up with a cool idea that “includes modified and improved methodologies of dealing with beggar children, collecting donations, recruiting street educators and volunteers, and educating the general populous about the situation, through the establishment of a non-governmental organization”. I’m sure there are other proposals and ideas that are as affordable and sustainable and can help provide a better living for all street children of all nationalities in Lebanon. Let’s not forget that 1.5 Million Lebanese are below the poverty line according to the UN and a lot of Lebanese child beggars originate from the Bekaa area so this is not just a problem related to the refugees and concerns a whole generation of Lebanese as well.
My organization, Kids Alive Lebanon (Dar El Awlad) has been in Lebanon since 1948 and we also have a contract with the ministry of social welfare. On a rare occasion we will receive a transfer from the Home of Hope, but many of our children are just a vulnerable and needy, despite them having at least one parent or family member “in charge” of them. At the moment we have a residential program for boys, age 4-14 (older in specific situations), a co-ed KG-Grade 6 primary school for residential/nonresidential children, a preschool, the Oasis (a literacy program for up to 60 Syrian children), and a care center in the south working with Bedouin and Dom children. At the moment all of our programs combined served children from 16 different nationalities, including stateless children. You can get more information on us via facebook (kidsalivelebanon), our residential children’s photo blog (http://eyes.mallaidh.org), or visit the global Kids Alive program site at kidsalive.org.
Thank you for this important article and clear useful suggestions on what people can do to help. No more excuses for ignoring this heartbreaking issue.
SOL Spring of Life in Bourg Hammoud has a school for children who don’t have papers to attend the Lebanese schools. Its a shame to see these children on the streets in this cold wet weather.
Heart for Lebanon, Kids Alive, IMES, LES, Tahaddi, and more are all programs that serve these types of children here in Lebanon – as do several local churches that I know of. We all do what we can with the funding we have and always look for people to help financially and practically where possible. Including my agency/program the ones I listed are those we can trust and know that the work is done holistically and competently…though we each approach it from a faith-based perspective. It would be my dream to work myself out of a “job” but sadly poverty and neglected children are never going to go away, so we need to do what we can to help those we can reach.
sorry, I meant LSESD not IMES. The LSESD is a social development program.
First of all thank you Najib for shedding light on this important yet often neglected subject.
With respect to the dunking donuts incident, which is only one of too many as you have mentioned, i was there and i witnessed the whole thing. First of all the image of the DD employee circulating around is actually a correct one. I don’t know which heartless human pulled some strings and got a news station to say that the person in question was dubious, but it was obviously done to discredit the real story. I will personally go pass by that branch to see who exactly got suspended as this story makes no sense. How do i know he did it? Because I (along with a bunch of other friends who had just exited a tedx salon) saw him punch the little boy’s nose with incredible force might I add. how do i know it was him? I personally confronted him and he was finding ways to justify his actions.
Anyway who did it is not really the point of the story, I’m simply disgusted by my first hand realization of how far the media and personal initiatives go in order to protect themselves instead of simply taking accountability and standing up for the rights of a little boy who was victimized and dehumanized.
As for boycotting, I think it’s silly as one employee doesn’t represent an entire franchise, however I would have boycotted DD had they knowingly covered up the truth, choosing to protect their image over the humanity of a marginalized 7 year old child- be it lebanese syrian palestian kurdish… all the same.
I am so deeply hurt by this country, as this incident which I witnessed first-hand, and the means by which it was handled, is just a microcosm of a vastly unjust reality.