Hopeless families in Nabaa seek only to feed their children

This is the story of a family in Nabaa district in Beirut; where this family focuses on feeding the children, and where education and health care are unattainable extras.

 Under the heavy rain drops and the snow falling in Beirut, we walked in the narrow neighbourhoods of Nabaa to visit Fady and Lina’s house. Nabaa is a popular district situated in the eastern part of Beirut. It embraces people from all denominations.

When entering Fady and Lina’s house, one immediately notices the humidity invading all walls, the smell of sewage and the bitter cold. The house is composed of a dark sitting room where we met the family, a kitchen along with a bathroom and a sleeping room for ten people. Seven children (registered in World Vision’s sponsorship programme) live in this house, aged between two and sixteen, along with their parents Fady and Lina and their aunt (Lina’s sister).

Among the children, only Mariana, six-year-old girl and Jawad, five-year-old boy, go to school. The rest dropped out at an early age, mainly while they were in elementary school. “We would rather provide for our family and feed our children instead of sending them to school,” said Lina, a 32-year-old mother and housewife. “Even for Mariana and Jawad, we can barely afford sending them to the nearby public school. If their grades weren’t great, we wouldn’t have registered them this year,” added Lina, while praising Mariana and Jawad’s capacities at school.

As for the rest of the children, they occasionally express their desire to go to school, just like all children. “Zahra, my 12-year-old daughter asks us why she isn’t going to school. At her age, all children go to school, and she feels that and asks why she is an exception,” stated Lina, as Zahra went to the other room to play with her siblings.

“My children have dropped out of school years ago, so even if we managed to afford the cost of their registration in a public school, it is quite impossible for them to cope and get integrated in the school system again,” affirmed Lina.

Furthermore, the children have not received any vaccinations and have had no medical check-ups. “We cannot pay for the vaccines of seven children, especially that we have no medical coverage. For now our children are not getting sick, let’s hope they will not in the future,” said Lina, who seems to have surrendered hopelessly to their conditions.

Fady is 38. He works in a pesticide production company. He was finally hired after more than one year of looking for a job in vain, since he closed his business. “Two years ago, I owned an aluminium production and installing company. It was impossible for it to stand in market with the influx of foreign casual workers who found businesses in Nabaa that concur with ours,” said Fady.

“Moreover, [they] pay no taxes, neither for the government nor for the municipal council. And they live inside their business premises, and sleep in it at night, and thus pay no rental fees for housing,” he added, expressing his frustration over the socio-economic situation in Nabaa area.

“Today, I am cooking pasta,” Lina proudly reveals during our chat. She perhaps insists on showing her guests that her family leads a normal life and they eat normal food, just like everybody else. Her pride prevented her from telling us everything about how they lead their lives. Yet, one of their neighbours had whispered to us that sometimes all they eat is bread dipped in water and sugar.

“I guess no human would tolerate living in a house such as ours, humidity is everywhere. Even if we paint, humidity will immediately appear again,” said Fady, pointing at the humidity on the walls, mentioning its unhealthy consequences.

The family lives in constant pressure and fear of being expelled from the house where they live. It has been months since Fady earned his salary from the pesticides company where he works and thus months since he paid the rent. “The landlord would expel us at any time to rent the house for Syrian workers who would pay her more than I do. I am the only one productive in this house and cannot provide for my family and pay the rental fees while the company where I work hasn’t paid me for months,” he said.

“Even the pesticides company where I work is enduring financial and economic problems, and is thus in arrears in the payment of employees’ salaries. Knowing that it is a multi-national company,” he added, explaining the reason he is not earning his monthly salary.

While the children are playing round the circle game in the kitchen, with no shoes on, only unclean socks and old pyjamas, as if they had all the time in the world to play,  their parents have no idea what the future holds. “We do not think about the future. We do not see any future ahead anyway. All we think of is feeding our children,” said Lina with faded eyes. 

The story of Fady and Lina’s family is similar to many stories of families in Nabaa, where children drop-out of school at an early age, and where parents are drowned in abject poverty, without finding any exit. World Vision is working in this area, to do what can be done to help improve the lives of the people living here.