Made Clean - Refugee Response

We have continued to operate our Made Clean program, which offers laundry services for refugee families in the camps while providing educational, emotional, and psychosocial development sessions for the children. This past quarter, we celebrated the graduation of 11 children from the Bekaa camp, marking the completion of another successful cycle in our program. These children were recognized and celebrated for all that they have learned. Additionally, we have expanded the reach of our program by launching it in two new camps in Tripoli and two in the Damour area. This expansion allows us to extend our educational, practical, and psychosocial support to even more children and families, helping them build brighter futures. The Made Clean program continues to be driven by our unwavering commitment to spreading love, compassion, and hope to those most in need. We look forward to the continued impact of our program and the positive changes it will bring to many more lives in the future.

Numbers:
6 camps
80 children
33 visits
189 washes

Story:
Rawad, a 9-year-old boy, exhibited stubborn behavior and resistance to engaging with our program. After we finished, we decided to talk with him, accompanied by his father, to understand the underlying issue. The father revealed that whenever Rawad gets annoyed by something, he just stops listening and tends to shut down. After this new information came upon us, we reassured the boy that we loved him and that he could always share anything with us. Witnessing this exchange, the father got emotional and started tearing up because he was moved by our efforts to connect with his son. To him, our willingness to address the situation and extend our support made a significant impact, contrasting with the possibility of dismissing Rawad from the class.

One of the privileges of the Made Clean program is that it gives us the opportunity to impact the lives of, and share hope and love with the refugee families that we are serving. We have now been in the new set of camps for long enough to begin building deeper relationships with the families and for them to trust us. This means that, as we wash clothes and teach and have fun with the children, we get to have conversations and share and encourage them, benefits beyond the immediate ones of clean clothes and the joy of learning together.

A LISTENING EAR 

The families that we work with have experienced war and are still now, living in very difficult circumstances. As we wash clothes, many of them open up to us and share their stories of how they left Syria, what it was like to live there during the war, and some of the struggles they are currently facing. They do not have many people around them who can listen to their stories. We are able to give them a listening and caring ear.

THE DIFFERENCE A LESSON MAKES

In one of our current camps, there is a 9-year-old girl who, when we first met her, was impolite towards her mother, frequently shouting at her, and even resorting to physical aggression. Within our program, we emphasize the importance of respect and the call to love one another. After ten lessons in this camp, the girl's father approached us and expressed that he could see a real difference in his daughter’s behavior. She was now polite and respectful at home, a transformation that we could also see in our lessons, where she attentively listened and communicated with respect. When she did something wrong, she apologized. This girl was deeply affected by what we had shared with her, and we are grateful for the opportunity to impact the lives of children like her.