Since 2019, Father Hakim has been the pastor of three parishes in the village of Beit Chabab , a mountain town located about twenty kilometers north of Beirut. Until then, Beit Chabab had always been a wealthy town. Then, “unexpectedly and alarmingly,” says Father Hakim, the economic and social situation worsened. 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the explosion at the port of Beirut, has worsened the social conditions of the entire country. And the effects of this crisis have also reached Beit Chabab.
Father Hakim and the AMU
Father Hakim immediately took action to deal with this social emergency , and organized, in his parishes, a committee to distribute aid to those in need. Alongside him, Mrs. Danielle Moukarzel, local representative of AMU. In fact, AMU is present in Lebanon with a project providing economic and psychological support to vulnerable families , to whom it distributes crates of food and hygiene products.
The great difficulties of families in crisis
“Some families in our parishes have found themselves experiencing increasing difficulties following the crises that have hit the economic and health sectors,” Father Hakim continues. ” Some have confessed to me in tears that they are no longer able to buy medicine or even milk for their children .
Not to mention all the other expenses: clothes, shoes, bills, gasoline for the cars.” Thanks to the support of AMU here in Beit Chabab, forty-five of the most vulnerable families receive food parcels every two months, and bread twice a week. The number of families requesting assistance has gradually increased: “In September 2021, there were about forty of them. Today, there are more than 120! Even those who were previously shy about asking for help now do so frequently and with great insistence, because the situation is becoming more serious and out of control day by day.”
