After the start of work at the Metanoia Listening Center, the team of specialists began to prepare all files, documents and forms necessary to the follow up process on cases received by the center's specialized offices. After that, we set off to visit all villages and cities in the Diocese of Sidon and Deir al-Qamar, we were able to visit more than 45 parishes within this month. After carrying out several studies and analyzing the most prominent needs of the parishioners, of course while coordinating with every parish priest, we have chosen around 10 to 12 families in every village, around 480 families in all parishes, that need the most inspection visits and have needs that our center can meet in a professional, confidential and transparent manner, respecting the ethics of our interventions.
One of the most beautiful experiences that the team work experienced during these visits, is the reaction of families and individuals to our visit to them, asking them about their most important needs, in addition to their expression of trust and gratitude for the presence of such listening center in their diocese, and it is fully prepared to receive them whenever they want, every time they need to be listened and to feel the presence of someone who can help and support them without any prejudice.Let’s share together some of families’ citations as a reaction of our home visits and support:
“We feel safe by the presence of people like you, ready to listen and support us without any prejudice or discrimination, and this is a great gesture from the Archdiocese to support this center!"
“ I feel relieved just because there is a specialized center that is able to support me and support me spiritually and help me face the difficulties I am going through.”
“Thank God for your standing by our side and your willingness to help us. We are very grateful for this visit and we promise you that we will start working hard on ourselves, and benefiting from the specialized services of the center.”
Name: L. R. - City: Jmeiliye
She has Alzheimer's, whose crises are increasing according to her son who lives with her, now she is happy with our presence and she wants to show us her house, room by room, and she repeats.
"This is my home, stay more to show it to you”
Name: E. S. S. - City: Jmeiliye
Helpless in bed and with a lot of emotions and feelings, between tears and a smile, he told us “Sit down and stay.” So, we promised him a second visit.
Name: M. B. S. - City: Jmeiliye
At the end of our visit to her, she told us about her life full of painful experiences and the difficulty of her diary, she accompanied us outside and spoke to us. "with a smile she told us how happy she was and thanked us for coming"
Name: D. D. - City - Majdalouna
She expressed with great joy that she found out about the existence of the Metanoia Center and promised us a visit with her old father "with enthusiasm, I will call you and we will visit you."
Name: J.D. - City: Ain El-Mir
A mother of two sons suffering from chronic diseases, which requires huge expenses, while her husband is a military and his salary is barely enough to meet basic needs. Their economic situation forced them to sell home furniture to ensure their children’s treatments.
"May God bless and strengthen you, to continue your mission. We are in great need to your help and support, especially for these difficult days!"
Name: G.I. - City: Ain El-Mir
An old woman who lives with her sick husband, they serve and help each other, and their living conditions are miserable.
"The most important thing we need in our region is for someone to be among us, who can listen to us, and to be always ready to any kind of support and help!"
Name: D.Y. - City: Mrah El-Hbas
An old man who lives with his wife, they have no children, they suffer from chronic diseases and serve each other.
" I am so happy because finally, we found someone who checks and asks for us! May God bless you!"
Name: C.E.H. - 72 years old - City: Marah El-Habbas
She is crippled with no children, and her husband takes care of her. “Thanks to the Lord for all the beautiful times we lived before illness and although in our sickness and difficulties I will not allow anything to steal my joy as long as God is with me and with my beloved husband.”
Name: G.M. - City: Jenesnaya
His son Ryan, 7 years old, suffers from hearing and speech impairments and needs to secure a hearing aid for him. "My son is a treasure and a precious gift from God. I love him and strive to provide the best for him and everything he needs to recover and become a child like all other children."
Name: I.W. 75 years old - City: Kefraya
A woman who lives alone after her son abandoned her and she doesn’t know anything about him. She was very happy after our visit, and she insists that we took coffee and some sweets she made. "Thank you very much for your visit, may God protect you. I hope you will visit us always."
Name: T.Y., 70 years old - City: Deir al-Qamar
He is crippled and cannot move, his wife takes care of him. Despite the pain and helplessness, his face is brilliant, though his tears stream softly down his cheeks. He and his wife welcomed us with joy, who admitted how much she needed such visits to speak and express the difficulties they are going through at this stage of their lives. “Seriously, I hope you always visit us and look out for us!”
We are proud to present to you the partnership between our center subordinate to the Greek Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Sidon and Deir El-Qamar and the Archdiocese de Cologne - Allmagne. Through this partnership, the churches of Colognes in Germany are delivering 1000 food parcels to the most vulnerable families of all parishes of Saida and Deir El-Qamar. This program is designed for Lebanese families in need, residents of villages and cities of the Diocese. This project started by preparing all the Data needed, from contacting all our parishes’ priests, fill “Family Forms”, economical study and basic needs to each one, statistics about parishioners, in addition to all documents necessary to begin home visits, without forgetting to contact with Youth organizations in order to preserve cooperation with them.
On Saturday, March 19th, MLC has hosted more than 80 volunteers, members of Youth Christian Students (YCS), National Scouts and Youth of Caritas, from 7:30 AM to 16:30 PM, to prepare these parcels. Furthermore, we decided to cooperate with drivers and helpers from unemployed parishioners, in order to benefit them from this project.We provide the facilities, like ensuring transportation, accessible location and all materials that this project can provide a quality help to parishioners according to their needs. This program is a total of multidisciplinary tasks which includes administrative, social and field work. Moreover, we are very interested this program to engage as many as youth as possible, by preparing a social activity joining youth to help us filling the parcels, as a voluntary activity, especially during the fasting period.We believe that this program can give them an opportunity to meaningful MLC future cooperating activities with all parishes. For -this reason, we are happy to partner with Dioceses and support the work that they're doing with people.This is just the beginning of our long-term partnership with different dioceses, the best is yet to come!
