‘The day I cease charity is the day I die’: The story of Simard

With a large smile and an enthusiastic hand wave throughout an alleyway, a lady stuffed with power warmly welcomed Al Mayadeen English’s workforce to her home in Borj Al-Barajneh within the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. There, everybody is aware of the path to her home and exhibits satisfaction in understanding such a terrific particular person.

Once we entered the modest home, we have been shocked to see a few children within the girls’s kitchen getting ready meals.

“I come right here two instances or one time per week, relying on my free time,” instructed us 14-year-old Mohammad Saker, who stated he was raised to do charity from a younger age.

“I really feel unhealthy to have meals on my desk whereas others don’t have anything to eat,” he added.

Mohammad stated he involves this home after faculty to supply assist and feed the poor.

Subsequent to him, his brother Ali, stated he does charity “to realize good deeds.”

“I’ve been serving to in charity for 3 years now, since I used to be 5 or 4, I like to come back right here, assist in charity, and pack meals,” the seven-year-old recalled.

“I like to do charity as a result of I really feel unhealthy for poor individuals who quick the entire day and are usually not in a position to have Iftar in contrast to us,” Ali defined.

He stated he began coming to this home when he “met Miss Simard and talked to her.”

#Lebanon‘s financial meltdown shouldn’t be the one issue that has effects on the crisis-stricken nation. #BeirutBlast pic.twitter.com/Ygds5KEink

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) January 25, 2023

However who’s Simard?

Simard Hareb, a college trainer by day and a superhero at evening — the girl who welcomed us to her home — took it upon herself to assist quite a few households and people in want amid a killer financial scenario that struck Lebanon.

It’s noteworthy that the nation has been experiencing a extreme financial disaster since late 2019, which has resulted in a foreign money collapse, hyperinflation, and widespread poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has additionally performed a big function in exacerbating the disaster. The lockdowns and restrictions that have been imposed to regulate the unfold of the virus have additional hampered the nation’s already struggling financial system.

The financial disaster has had a extreme impression on the nation’s financial system, with inflation skyrocketing and the foreign money shedding over 90% of its worth in lower than two years. The nation’s GDP declined by 6.5% in 2022 and unemployment charges have surged to 29.6%.

The Lebanese persons are dealing with an acute scarcity of primary items, reminiscent of meals and drugs, and the price of residing has elevated dramatically. Many individuals are struggling to make ends meet, and poverty charges have soared. The disaster has additionally induced a big mind drain, with many proficient professionals leaving the nation looking for higher alternatives.

The Lebanese banking sector has additionally been severely impacted by the disaster. Lebanese banks have been closely invested in authorities debt, which has develop into more and more unsustainable. The banks have imposed strict capital controls, limiting withdrawals and transfers, which has additional restricted financial exercise.

Celebrating 12 years of working in charity

By the point we have been filming, Simard was celebrating 12 years of working in charity. For 5 years in a row, she’s been pursuing the “Kafalat Al Jar” initiative in Ramadan, the place for 30 days, she and her mates use Simard’s kitchen as a station to fill a median of 26 meals and even 80 meals on weekends and distribute them each day on Iftar time. 

Simard additionally launched different initiatives, such because the $1 challenge, the place let’s say, in a household of 5, every member of the family would give her a greenback per week. This was the case when the trade fee was 1,500 kilos towards the greenback. Right this moment, it turned a lot greater. In line with Simard, between 800 and 900 households participate on this initiative, which permits her to assist and comply with up on 18 instances in want — ranging between the aged, orphans, and people who should not have a breadwinner — on a month-to-month foundation.

She specifies that her goal group is individuals who should not have assist, a breadwinner, and any returns.

“In different phrases, individuals who should you don’t knock on their door, nobody would ever will,” Simard stated.

“We don’t movie them or take their footage out of respect for his or her dignity as a result of as I stated earlier than and can at all times repeat, individuals’s dignity is a pink line that shouldn’t be trespassed it doesn’t matter what,” she pressured, referring to a disgusting current development practiced by so-called influencers whereby they provide no assist with out filming the individuals they’re giving the help to. For them, it has all to be on digicam for the sake of publicity and social media engagement.

‘The day I cease charity is the day I die’

If somebody seems at Simard’s fridge, they’ll see three footage; the images of her deceased mother, her good friend’s son Taym, and her greatest good friend Ramona, whom she misplaced in a automobile accident.

“When my dad and mom handed away, I made a decision to make charity of their title. That is how it began,” she recounted.

“These three persons are my motivation; they push me to do charity, God prepared, until the remainder of my life,” she added.

“The day I cease charity is the day I die.”

How did the financial disaster have an effect on charity work?

“I feel that you’ll snort lots when you already know that it’s the individuals who present me with the substances,” Simard instructed Al Mayadeen English.

Because of the robust circumstances that the nation goes via, she launched one other initiative known as the One Merchandise Venture, the place she asks donors on Fb — relying on their capability and functionality — to get her just one merchandise out of many who she wants for her charity work.

“I may very well be the one one who would say that the financial disaster affected me positively,” Simard jokingly stated, bearing on the financial disaster that Lebanon is affected by.

“It’s not possible that my work of charity shall be halted,” she pressured, explaining that it is because she shouldn’t be depending on a sure aspect, place, human, or a enterprise.

“So long as one particular person can provide one grain of rice, we are going to survive,” she underlined.

“This was and can stay my motto in life.”

Simard stated she can not attain simply an space known as Ein El-Sekkeh, which is seven minutes away from her home, as a result of many individuals would cease her on the best way at hand her donations.

“I’ve been doing this for a very long time now that it turned my life-style. Individuals normally get up frightened about their husbands and youngsters, however I get up frightened about my instances, whether or not I secured their drugs or meals on the desk,” she indicated.

What issues does Simard face?

Simard believed that she doesn’t face quite a lot of issues, however generally she receives bothering notes about her initiatives, particularly in the course of the holy month of Ramadan.

“At the start of Ramadan, somebody sarcastically requested me, ‘What’s going to you feed individuals? Bulgur with tomatoes?'”

“I don’t understand how these individuals assume to say such feedback. I generally have a look at these individuals and really feel sorry for them, not having the ability to really feel for the others,” she stated.

“I really feel sorry for the people who find themselves well-off, but they don’t take into consideration others.”

“I’d be capable of eat nicely, whereas others may not. If I cut up the meals between us, we will each eat nicely and proceed to reside,” Simard expressed.

“It’s a quite simple idea and equation.”

Learn extra: A vegetative Lebanon in Ramadan