Khaled al Meiss is s a jovial man whose cheerfulness seems to be a second nature. While the presence of refugees on Lebanese territory has become a topic that drains and often gets on the nerves of the local populations, he goes against the flow and makes mutual aid a line of conduct which he does not deviate from. Convinced of being on the right track, no argument against his commitment to refugees seems to influence him; he remains steady in his beliefs.
He relates how he started helping Syrian populations and how, one
evening, he found a distressed, poor, homeless family, on the curb of his
building. He did not hesitate a second and without thinking he opened the
doors of an adjacent building in construction that he owns. More than 16
families will follow there, housed free. He takes care of water and
electricity and even provides financial assistance to the most destitute.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has built two wooden houses on the same land to
enable him to increase his housing capacity against financial compensation. He
could have been receiving rent, but refuses to do so.
His help is organized and he manages it with an iron fist. He
established a main rule: whenever a hosted family begins to gain financial
autonomy, it must give way to an incoming family. Only families whose situation
remains highly precarious have the right to remain like for example this widow
with five children, of which a severely disabled daughter. Departures
take place without frictions, beneficiaries accept the rules and the logic of
this temporary hospitality, and are aware that the opportunity they had must be
shared. The reputation of the place spreads like wildfire, the hosted Syrian
families having quickly relayed the information just as a good address is
communicated between friends.
As to knowing the motives behind it, he replied without hesitation that
this is a humanitarian issue and that it is simply impossible to remain
indifferent in such a tragic situation. He mainly talks about his deep faith in
God that underlies his action. “God makes a good deed sevenfold” he says;
“helping is to keep away one’s own misfortune”. His action is just another
application of the “sadaka”, this charity that is the gift of one’s self to the
other and that consists in donating and distributing to the poor, the needy
what one has in excess.
And whether he will be able to respond to a demand continually
increasing for a long time still, he says he is not worried as long as God
places on his way generous donors who support his actions and associations such
as arcenciel with whom he collaborates closely to benefit the refugees.
If Lebanese solidarity toward Syrians is often complex and conceals
various issues, this case constitutes the true testimony of a philosophy of
mutual help, sustained by faith, that engages any man who has the means, to
help another in need. In a situation which has become so complex and so
dehumanized where such actions are becoming increasingly rare, this spirit of
solidarity can only help to relieve the plight of refugees and through this to
improve their relations with the hosting country.
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