For the Sake of the Child

How beautiful are union and cooperation, and how splendid the charity and benevolence undertaken by a band of our devoted ladies, whose movement spreads through every part of Lebanon — its capital, its north, its south, and its Bekaa; and how beautiful it is that the bride of Lebanon shares with the Women's Union in this blessed movement. Who is worthier than mothers to care for childhood and to aid it; who more capable than the ladies of the Union of managing it and tending it; who more fitting than the Child Welfare Committee to lay the plans and to strive without pause to carry them out? It is a beautiful day and a fruitful national feast.

With a few small sums saved from what is spent on luxuries, you rescue hundreds of children from the life of the alleys and of vagrancy into the useful life of learning — into the cleanliness, exercise, food, and clothing denied them in the parental home — within national Lebanese walls, and in institutions nourished by our own associations, not by the associations of the charitable among the foreigners. Thus you take your share in bringing to life a new generation, sound of body and strong of build, nourished on the love of Lebanon and on self-sacrifice in its service.

The Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah Society of Zahle, after spending all that came into its treasury from subscriptions and donations on aiding families in quiet need, on distributing medicine, food, and clothing to the needy, and on attending to children at the seasons and the feasts, and after most of its members had merged into the institution of the Lebanese Red Cross, resolved to devote its efforts at present to the beloved child of Zahle, and to helping mothers in upbringing, teaching, and refinement through the nursery years. So it founded a kindergarten and furnished it with the loveliest furnishings and with varied games that join amusement to profit, so that the child learns while he plays and amuses himself under the guidance of specialized women teachers who studied this art for a long time. The Nahda is now striving its utmost to improve this project and perfect it, and it hopes that the demand for it will be great and the benefit from it plain and clear; so that when this becomes evident to all, and the project comes to rest on a firm economic foundation, it will work to establish a second kindergarten with room for a greater number of the children of the poor and of the workers, who will find in it learning and refinement together with food and clothing. Nothing has delayed it from setting up this project but the money needed for it each year.

So to the aid of the Lebanese child on the sacred Day of the Child, and to the aid of the Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah of Zahle in its struggle for the beloved child of Zahle, I call the people of charity and benevolence, the people of gallantry and grace — above all those upon whom God has bestowed abundant wealth and great, feeling hearts. The children of Zahle and her fledglings appeal to you with their angelic voices and their little hearts: Help Zahle the bride; educate her beloved child; feed her homeless child; support her women's Nahda with your generous donations.

"The Woman's Voice: This piece and the piece that follows it were written on the occasion of the Day of the Child, which Lebanon celebrated last March."