Dear Friends,
We are pleased to announce the BLYM Monthly Cause for June –
Brummana High School, Lebanon
Sponsors: Paul Holdsworth, Anne Stone, Ruth Harland.
Quaker history and traditions at Brummana High School:
From the Principal David Gray
Dear Friends
Brummana High School is the British School of Lebanon, the last Quaker educational institution in the country. Founded in 1873, it has been a beacon of light in times of perennial crisis in the country attracting students of all faiths and backgrounds. Its diversity of school population and its promotion of tolerance and peaceful resolution have been central to its strengths as a place of academic excellence and pastoral compassion at the heart of a holistic educational experience since its foundation.
The August the 4th explosion in Beirut, which ripped out the heart of the city, rendered 300,000 people homeless and killed and maimed thousands, brought to the attention of the world a country which was floundering amidst a sea of troubles. Little Lebanon, surrounded by war torn and impoverished Syria, from which it has received over a million refugees, and Israel, did not have its problems to seek.
In the past 12 months the Lebanese Lira has lost 90% of its value, inflation is rampant, unemployment runs at 50% and 60% of the population lives below the poverty line. And of course, COVID-19, which has raged out of control in a country which has operated without a government for over a year, has taken its toll on a weary, exhausted, and despairing people. Businesses have closed, schools are physically closed, and those who have had the capacity to leave the country have done so for a better life elsewhere.
Yet Lebanon is a beautiful place and a jewel in the Middle Eastern crown, once the home of Middle Eastern banking and free enterprise and still a champion of education as a means to prosperity and to success. At the centre of this jewel lies Brummana High School. It has, through the promotion of Quaker Values of individuality, respect for others, tolerance and peaceful resolution, turned out generations of national leaders, presidents and prime ministers across the Middle East, as well as leaders of the professions across the globe.
Today it is running a comprehensive education and welfare programme online for its 1250 strong population, aged three to 18, continuing to promote its Quaker values and striving to provide for its families who have been hit hard by all of Lebanon’s woes, through its beleaguered, financial aid scheme. Yet while it offers a beacon of hope to its student population (in April it staged a brilliant Model United Nations Conference online, delivered exclusively by its own students, over a two-day weekend for over 170 student delegates from six countries and 26 schools), it is struggling to provide as it needs to. Projecting a one million dollar loss this year, which it is determined to weather, the short term future looks bleak. Yet Lebanon is often described as “a cork in water”, always unstable, yet invariably afloat, and the country will survive this storm as it has done in the past, God willing.
And the school will continue to produce top quality human beings determined to make a difference in their troubled world. They are Lebanon’s future, and we need to protect their tomorrows by giving them the very best education available at Brummana High School today.
You can assist the school by making a donation which will, however small, help to save the education of a child whose future depends on your generosity and who will, through the Quaker education provided, be able to begin to mend the broken society which is so desperately evident in the country today. Without your support for bursaries, many children who could do much will miss out and flounder where otherwise they might flourish.
David Gray, Principal
Find out more about our work by following the Quaker International Educational Trust’s (QuIET) Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/quakerinternationaleducationaltrust
and the School’s web site http://www.bhs.edu.lb
Donations to Belgium and Luxemburg Yearly Meeting may be made to:
Account Name: Quakers BLMM
IBAN: BE76 9794 2781 7895 BIC: ARSP BE22
Donations to a Monthly Cause should be made to the same account, specifying in the bank transfer comments section that the donation is for the “Monthly Cause”.
Friends are invited to recommend a Monthly Cause for donations. There need to be at least two friends who recommend each Monthly Cause. If one or more of those Friends is actively involved in the organisation concerned (e.g. taking part in activities or projects etc.), Meeting will match the amount donated during the month; this means that the amount sent to the organisation will be doubled.
Make a donation to BLYM Quakers
Send your recommendations for a Monthly Cause to the BLYM Fundraiser via our Contact Page.
