DIKWANEH, Lebanon: Some of them have outlived most of their friends and family, others lack the funds to have a festive Christmas, and others simply decide to celebrate Christmas at Caritas to escape the loneliness of holidays.
“Most of my family is gone. My husband is dead, and it’s just my daughter who takes care of me,” said 70-year-old Evelyn Khalifeh, her eyes swelling with tears.
“I heard about this place from a friend six years ago, and I’ve been coming here ever since. The people here are my friends and family. They take care of me.”
Khalifeh recalls her youth in Zahle, east of the Lebanese capital, when she and her family would visit one another during the holidays, breaking bread and exchanging gifts. Today, she says everything – including Christmas – has gotten too expensive. And she’s happy to have found a place where money is no obstacle to a festive holiday season.
Since Caritas started its soup kitchen seven years ago, Khalifeh and others have been joining everyone from homeless people to those who simply want company during the holidays. In addition to Dikwaneh, the meals are served at four different locations including Burj Hammoud, Furn al-Shubbak and Sin al-Fil. The center in Dekwaneh, which started out with 20 people, now serves 80.
“We can’t turn anyone away,” said Therese Geagea, a cook at the Caritas center in Dakwaneh, one of four that serves meals to Lebanon’s poor and elderly throughout the year, including the Christmas season.
“The first year I cried because everyone told me their stories. Then I got used to it.”
Many of the people Caritas serves lack basic needs, such as decent housing or electricity. Others are cared for by their children, but they don’t want to be a burden to the younger generation.
Marcelle Kosseifi, 75, who started coming to Caritas seven years ago, lives with her son. But she says there’s not enough money.
“I don’t want to take money away from him,” she says. “He has children in school, and he should be spending money on them.” She says she’s happy to have made friends from throughout Lebanon.
Not everyone there is a senior citizen.
For Camille Bawarideh, the soup kitchen, particularly at Christmas time, gives him a sense of community and safety that he lacked during his 10 years as a political prisoner in Syria.
Employees at Caritas say Bawarideh, a Christian, is often hostile to people of different sects, particularly Muslims and Druze, and when he comes across a Syrian he loses his temper. On Friday, however, he was walking through the building cheerfully, handing out candy to everyone.
Another man came to Caritas after living homeless for an extended period. Employees welcomed him and cleaned him.
Although their job is far from glamorous, the employees at Caritas seem to bask in their work, boosted by the gratitude of those they serve.
Bassam Hojiele, head cook, worked as an accountant for Caritas for 21 years until the soup kitchen was founded seven years ago, under the direction of Father Louis Sumaha.
The purpose in establishing the center says Hojiele, is that “no one should leave hungry.”
Since its establishment 36 years ago, Caritas Lebanon has done humanitarian work for the country’s’ needy. Aside from their soup kitchens, other programs include mobile medical clinics, help for migrants, youths and the rural poor.
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