Mrs. Hanneh Atiyeh

Founder and president of the Helping Hand Society, and head of the kindergarten school in Bino, Akkar, North Lebanon.

Mrs. Hanneh Atiyeh is one of the great women, a model of piety, character, and social work. She was born in Abeih in 1859 to a noble and ancient family: her father, Fares Mishriq Haddad, was the cousin of the thrice-blessed late Patriarch Gregorius Haddad, of hallowed memory. She received her elementary schooling in her home town and completed her studies at the American school in Beirut, where she took with distinction the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1877. She then spent some years as directress of the mission schools in Araya and in Homs, and there she met the late Reverend Iskandar Atiyeh, who married her in 1885. She was the model of the good wife and the wise, virtuous mother, spending her time in managing her house, rearing her sons, and helping her husband, and what time remained to her in serving the public and advancing the daughters of her sex in the town. She bore five sons, whom she reared in the best manner, planting in their souls the loftiest virtues. Each of them holds a distinguished social position and has done good that cannot be denied. Her eldest son, Farid Bey Atiyeh, spent many years as chief of the inspectors of education in the Egyptian Sudan, and His Majesty King Fuad the First conferred on him the rank of Bey in recognition of his merit and learning. Her two sons the doctors, Ragheb and Naji, are skillful physicians who still labor at easing the pains of humanity and treating the poor without charge; and the other two, Atiyeh and Sami, hold learned degrees and have filled various posts.

The day she came to Bino, her husband's town, was a blessed day, for hers is the foremost hand in raising the standing of woman there and moving her forward, through the sound principles and good works she has spread.

She founded the Helping Hand Society in 1919 and set about holding literary fêtes, spending their proceeds on aiding the destitute. She spared no effort in gathering donations until she obtained the money needed to build a school in a spacious house in 1931; and she still directs the school with her wisdom, unflagging, watching over its flourishing and its progress, and providing free schooling for many of the children of the poor.

She has resolved to celebrate the society's silver jubilee next summer, and she will then retire from the presidency of the society and the school, seeking rest after this long life filled with great works.