Lebanese teen spend summer break caring for displaced neighbors

(Catholic Relief Services) Mahmoud Maatouk is one you would pick out from a crowd. More likely, he would pick you out.

With a quick smile and a ready laugh, Maatouk spills energy like water, and feeds those around him with a steady stream of what seems an endless supply of enthusiasm.

But Maatouk, 17, is more than just an average teenager, out on summer break. Today he is helping to unload 11 tons of relief supplies beneath a blistering Mediterranean sun -and this is easy work compared to just a few weeks ago. A volunteer for the Lebanese non-governmental organization the Development of People and Nature Association (DPNA), Maatouk spent much of his summer caring for some of the nearly one million people displaced by the war in Lebanon. "Some of my friends said, 'What are you doing? This is a risky job,'" Maatouk said. "But when I found my country being destroyed and people being killed, I wanted to help." Having volunteered just one month earlier to work in summer school programs in Sidon, Maatouk suddenly found himself confronted with the displacement of nearly one quarter of Lebanon's population, many of them traumatized by the ordeal they faced in fleeing the fighting further south. With a full time staff of only five people, DPNA called on volunteers to step up and provide the support it would need to care for the tide of humanity at the school. Maatouk immediately joined more than 100 others in answering the call. "We worked most of the day, 8 or 10 hours a day," Maatouk said. "Our main job was to distribute materials - food, water, everything." But as the stress of displacement grew, Maatouk and his fellow volunteers faced the many ups and downs of such exhausting work. For Maatouk, who feels strong links to both his country and his countrymen, the real stress of the work was the psychological toll it took, more than the physical. "The hardest thing was when people came to you almost begging for help," Maatouk recalled. "I don't want to see my people this way." Despite the strains, Maatouk worked for 29 straight days without rest, surrounded constantly by the stress of the crowded school building and reminded by periodic explosions of the proximity of the war. With the implementation of a ceasefire on August 14, those crowding schools like the Evangelical Institute returned home immediately, anxious to see what if anything remained of their houses. Within 48 hours, all 1,280 people sheltering at the school had left, though many were to discover they had no homes to return to. For Maatouk, these first days of relative peace were powerful moments. "The best was seeing people return to their homes," Maatouk said. "You can't live without your home. Even if you are gone for many years, you will still come back." But the joy of that homecoming was to turn quickly to shock as the true cost of the war became evident. More than 1,400 Lebanese were killed, an additional 4,000 wounded. More than $3.5 billion in damaged roadways, bridges, power plants and critical infrastructure guarantees a long and painful rebuilding effort. As aid agencies work to reach those affected by the war, Maatouk and his fellow volunteers are now helping to unload trucks laden with relief supplies, stacking and packing the rice, flour, sugar, water and other commodities that will form the backbone of the immediate response until the long-term needs of housing and infrastructure can be addressed. Though it is labor that inspires him, Maatouk like many Lebanese is frustrated and saddened by the effects of yet another of the wars that plague his country's recent history. "Everyone who wants to make his own war, he makes it in Lebanon," Maatouk said. "It's always interfering with our choices, with our lives." For one so young, you need to spend only a few minutes with Maatouk to see that he feels more deeply than his years would suggest. Confident and strong spirited, Maatouk and the other volunteers with whom he worked throughout the war bore the brunt of the relief effort in Lebanon - a proud monument of courage, commitment, and most of all hope at a time when Lebanon is again bloodied by conflict. For a young student who is eager to return to school to continue his education, these days of intensity are filled with lessons no classroom could easily have taught. "I discovered that I can do many things that I didn't know I could," Maatouk said. "And I learned that it's not difficult to help people. It's an honor for me, and I'm proud of my work." - - - David Snyder met Maatouk through his work with Catholic Relief Services, which is supporting DPNA and two other partner agencies as relief operations in Lebanon continue, targeting a total of 50,000 people with good and services in the weeks after the ceasefire. One hub for that effort during the war was the National Evangelical Institute of Boys and Girls, a public school in the Lebanese city of Sidon, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes several times throughout the 34-day war. Here, more than 1,200 people displaced by the war gathered to seek refuge from the conflict. Many of them lost their homes and even family members in the conflict, which erupted in July 12.

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Reprinted by Catholic Online with permission of Catholic Relief Services (www.crs.org)