The ceasefire in Lebanon opens a glimmer of hope for the Middle East, but the wounds of war are not easily healed and risk fuelling tensions in an area repeatedly tormented by conflict and violence.

This is why the Society of St. Vincent De Paul has decided to help a project in Beirut that promotes education and socialisation, where the Sisters of Charity run five schools and every day try to give concrete answers to the new generations tried by the climate of war.

‘We strongly believe,’ explains the president of the national Italian Society of St Vincent De Paul Odv, Paola Da Ros -in the importance of education to offer young people the opportunity to improve their future. Every student who completes his or her course represents an extra guarantee for himself or herself, for his or her family and for the entire country’.

‘This is why,’ adds Giancarlo Salamone, head of the Solidarity and Twinning Sector of the Society of St Vincent De Paul, ’we decided to start a fundraiser to help the sisters of St Jeanne Antida Thouret. The students, some of whom have lost parents and relatives, are also helped psychologically and looked after by professionals who take care of the emotional aspects. But today the Sisters also take care of the most pressing needs, such as providing food and basic necessities for the students and their families.

‘We are witnessing another emergency, that of broken families. They need all kinds of support: food, medicine, milk for the children, drinking water, blankets, first aid material, personal hygiene kits, clothes,’ says Sister M. Luisa Caruso, on behalf of the Thouret Foundation, which has been supporting schools in Lebanon for months. ‘Young people need to be supported, helped and to have a safe place where they can train and study. They need hope that a future is possible for them too. The territory is experiencing a dramatic situation that threatens the future of the country and its people’.