With a big smile and shiny eyes, Warde welcomes you whenever you visit; a visit she prays for every day, every week, every month. She smiles as if she has no care in the world, she greets as if she has known you forever and she spreads positivity as if she had everything.
But Warde is a 70-year-old widow with no children of her own and one brother that hasn’t come to visit for more than 5 years. Warde can barely see, walks aided by her cane and puts on her oxygen mask while sleeping. She has no source of income, no health insurance, no assets, no properties and no savings. She has no means to survive except an old roof above her head, a strong faith and a warm smile!
45 years living in the same room under the stairs of an old building in Beirut, Lebanon. She lives with her best friend Amal. The unit has no tiles, no windows, no proper sanitation, a micro-kitchen and an outside bathroom chair. Amal has been supporting Warde for the past 10 years. They went through many hardships together and still are…
At the Social Bureau of the Vincentian Fathers, as Saint Vincent de Paul taught us, the poor are our partners. Well, Warde has been one of the oldest partners and has been served by the bureau for the past 10 years.
Every month, the Vincentian volunteers of the social bureau visit Warde and provide her with food baskets (enough to last for a month), her medicine and multipurpose cash to pay for rent, electricity and water. This is still on-going even during Corona. Jean, a Vincentian volunteer with the social bureau for the past 5 years, is a constant support and visitor. Moral support is crucial! But more importantly spiritual support!
Warde is delighted to show her small prayer corner, her rosary and her photograph with the Apostolic Nuncio. She explains proudly: “the Papal Ambassador visited me!” Warde is one of the lovely souls we support, however, many other individuals and families rely on us to ease their suffering. Today more than ever Lebanon is suffering, our aim is to continue to support the most vulnerable in Beirut especially during these hardest of time.
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