CIVIL RESISTANCE: DONATE

This group CIVIL RESISTANCE has been active since the beginning of August. They attempted to defy Israeli aggression by running supplies to the South during the most intense days of the campaign (they were prohibited by the Lebanese Army). Like the volunteers who aided refugees in July and Aug (and are STILL helping many), these group of volunteers are no less than inspirational than the men, women, and children who have and continue to struggle to rebuild their lives after the everything they knew was blown to bits. They have been active in providing medical help, medicine, psychological counselling, food, child care and education, baby milk, diapers, and clothing to residents returning to their destroyed villages.


CIVIL RESISTANCE: Third Week Report
Resisting agression by reshaping the nature of Lebanese civil society
This document describes projects we have undertaken in the third week of our engagement with Lebanese areas targeted by Israeli aggression (Sept. 1-7, 2006).
For a detailed description of our mission, objectives, and resources, please read our document entitled “Civil Resistance,” available on-line at www.lebanonsolidarity.org. For ways you can help our efforts, please see the last section entitled, “Upcoming Village Solidarity Work.” Objectives:
1) To enable quick rehabilitation in areas damaged by bombing so that daily lives can recommence in time for harvest, school, and winter
2) To counter the divisive social effects of this and past wars against Lebanon
3) To activate a self-sustaining local economy
4) To provide constructive means for children and their families to deal with the trauma of enduring war
5) To enroll an expanded section of Lebanese civil society in active civilian resistance and solidarity work

Upcoming Village Solidarity Work for which we are asking your help:
Unlike most organizations currently active in the South, our project surpasses immediate relief and seeks to use the most expanded networks of civilian volunteers. This means returning each week to Silaa, al-Qantara, Zebqine, and Houla. In each of these villages, we are seeking ways to stimulate nation-wide embrace of all Lebanese as equally dignified and deserving inhabitants, to rekindle the local economy, to link schools in areas affected by Israeli aggression to sister-schools in other parts of Lebanon, to provide emotional and intellectual stimulation for children who have endured war, and to foster local civilian resistance through cultural events and symposiums. Some of the applications to reach these goals that we are currently considering or already undertaking are listed below: 1) Memorial lunches in other villages (greater population than Silaa; a. Needed: i. c.$750 per lunch; ii. volunteer participants willing to spend an afternoon condoling; b. Contact: Abed Zahzah, abdelrahman.zahzah@dargroup.com.
2) Durable, large-group physical game equipment, and photocopies for guided, therapeutic drawing sessions; a. Needed: i. = $150; ii. volunteers willing to spend an afternoon each week playing with children of one village; b. Contact: Maha Issa, maha.m.issa@gmail.com. 3) Two more villages according to the sample applications = $5000;a. Needed i. $2500 per village; ii. volunteers able to give two days per week to assess needs by visiting villages, purchase supplies, pack them, and deliver them b. Contact: Sami Hermez, shermez@princeton.edu. 4) Clinic Network for long-term, specialized care; a. Needed: i. c.$300 chronic disease medications per village per month; ii. specialist doctors willing to volunteer one or two days a month to visit set of villages b. Contact: Fida Shreim, fs25@aub.edu.lb. 5) Olive harvest, oil processing and marketing; a. Needed: i. Funds to be ascertained; ii. Volunteers with cooperative agricultural, export, merchant experience; b. Contact: Mohamad Safieddine, mohamad.safieddine@yahoo.com. 6) Boycott lectures, publication material, web-site; a. Needed: i. Web-site designer; ii. Web master; iii. Graphic designers to update brochures, produce stickers and posters; iv. Volunteers willing to devote one or two days a month to giving lectures and leading discussions; v. Volunteers willing to prepare petitions in their neighborhoods to their area stores; vi. Volunteers willing to devote one or two days a month to lobbying wholesale merchants; b. Contact Samah Idriss, kidriss@cyberia.net.lb. 7) School Twinning; a. Needed:i. Funds to be ascertained; ii. People who can lobby school boards, teachers, parent associations; iii. Teachers willing to participate; iv. Computers and internet access for twinned schools not yet enjoying these facilities; v. Volunteers to develop ideas, prepare proposal, lobby schools, facilitate coordination; vi. Contact Kirsten Scheid, kidrissster@gmail.com

We would appreciate any donations of volunteer time, money, or kind. For sending money from abroad, please send it to the attention of Abdelrahman Zahzah via the NGO Platform Sidon, the account for which is at the First National Bank, SAL, Sidon Branch, #0017-128374-002 USB. The name of the account holder is Hamatto and/or Cheaib, NGO Platform Sidon. The swift code is SINKLBBE. Please send an e-mail notifying us of your donation to Abed Zahzah, abdelrahman.zahzah@dargroup.com, or Samah Idriss & Kirsten Scheid, kidriss@cyberia.net.lb. For your records, we would be happy to supply you with receipts from merchants and affidavits of donation from village mayors.