Reference of Social Work In The Face of Crises and Disasters Booklets – Part Two
Researcher – Hiam Samaha Kahi
Research Assistant – Aimee Ghanem
Due to the large number of disabled people in the Lebanese war, including fighters and civilians who were injured by shelling, sniping and explosions, the “Beit Chabeb Centre for war disabled” was established in early 1976s. One of its essential goals was the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Many specialists worked at that centre, including social workers who took upon themselves the responsibility of assisting these people families, socially, economically and in their lives. Due to the increasing numbers and in order to follow up on the disabled who left Beit Chabeb centre and to help them reintegrating their environment, another centre in Sin el-Fil emerged with a direct support from the “Department of Social Welfare”. The management of this centre was entrusted to a social worker, Mrs. Marie-Rose Rahme Awwad who worked at “Beit Chabeb Centre for war disabled”. With a multidisciplinary team, she tried with determination, persistence and efficiency to support the war disabled and to help them regain some of their independence, through rehabilitation, and productive and social programmes; she secured the beginning of a decent life for them. All that was under difficult security conditions until the 1990 War of Elimination which destroyed the centre and ended what had begun, ending the hopes and dreams of its employees as well as its beneficiaries. Mrs. Awwad said: “We had to invent everything: the work methods, the possibilities of providing appropriate equipment and programmes, and cooperation with the associations and institutions supporting our work”.