In the Field of Social Service

I have read in the papers and heard from the platforms many statements about the condition of the peasant and of agriculture in the Arab lands; but these statements went with the wind, because many people have grown used to feeling no responsibility toward others, to being unready to sacrifice their pleasures for the sake of human society, and to laying the blame always upon the government — not realizing that the government cannot bear this responsibility alone unless the individual joins hands with it. Every girl saw with her own eyes that there is no reforming the nation without reforming the peasant, and that it is impossible to move the nation forward while the village is cut off. Every one of us felt that it is a sin for us to let cares and troubles and ignorance and privation strangle in him the flame of understanding and awareness, and that it is our duty to carry the torch of light from the city to the village.

The first thing that strikes anyone who examines the life of city and village is the townsman's contempt for the peasant. We look askance at this peasant, with an eye that sees in him nothing but dregs that the fates have abandoned by the roadside. The townsman does not despise the peasant because the one is a townsman and the other a villager — most of us spring from the villages and the mountains — it is the townsman's learning and the peasant's ignorance that cleave the breach between them. Therefore every one of us saw that it was necessary to raise the peasant to the townsman's level in order to close the gap between them, and that this is not impossible, since some villages have already gone a long way toward civilization — which encouraged us to proceed with this project.

And since we believe that civilizing the village demands sacrifice on the part of the educated young, we resolved to be among the first volunteers in this humane service, to carry the remedy and bear the city's message to the village.

Last year (1946–1947) the members of the Charitable Projects Society at the American College in Beirut and its women teachers held numerous meetings, in the course of which we discussed the points mentioned above. It was agreed to set up a camp at "Ain Yaacoub." But a project like this requires heavy expenses — and where were we to get money enough? At last we decided to devote the greater part of the proceeds of the charity theatricals which we hold every year to this weighty project; and by good fortune the Arabic play "Qays and Lubna," which we performed, met with great success — and that after great sacrifices and prodigious efforts on the part of the members of the charitable society and the actresses.

The result of this success was that we were able to gather the money needed for the expenses of a camp we set up in the village of "Ain Yaacoub" (one of the villages of Akkar) for six weeks, from June 23 to August 7, 1947 (it being understood that every volunteer, man and woman, paid out of his own pocket the cost of his food and the expenses of the journey).

Those who took part in this project were the students of the "Junior College" and its women teachers, and five students of the American University — three of them medical students — and Dr. Awanter with his wife and his son.

Upon our arrival in the village we met the mukhtar of the village — in whom we found a man ready to help us and support our project — and after that we began visiting the houses of the village to become acquainted with its people and study some of its problems. You cannot picture the joy of the people of that village at our coming, and the welcome they gave us — a welcome all sincerity and affection.

The Educational Problem

The first thing that caught our attention during our meeting with the mukhtar and the visits we made was the high percentage of illiteracy widespread among the people of the village; and what made the problem in that village a double one was its total deprivation of schools — although most of Lebanon's villages are not without elementary schools for boys, which makes the situation in Lebanon on the whole better than that of the villages in the other Arab lands. The situation in the village of Ain Yaacoub, however, was no different from that of the villages of the interior countries.

Fortunately we found that some of the village people who were eager for learning went daily on foot to a neighboring village called "Yazbina," where there is an elementary school.

And since we all knew full well that by depriving the peasant of reading and writing we deprive him beyond doubt of the most important means of progress; that it is essential for every peasant, male and female, to learn to read and write; and that some of the efforts to spread rural education are confined to the education of the man while the woman is neglected entirely — we decided to open two schools, one for boys and one for girls. But where were we to find a suitable place for two schools? The houses of the village are small and few in number, scarcely large enough for their own inhabitants. At last we decided that the boys' school should be under the trees; as for the girls' school, one of the mukhtar's kinswomen donated her house (with us continuing to lodge in it). We entrusted the care and management of the boys' school to the university students volunteering with us in the work; while we (that is, the teachers and students of the Junior College) took upon ourselves the charge of the girls' school and the directing of our care toward the education of the village woman.

The school under the trees held 90 pupils, ranging in age from six years to forty (70% of them illiterate).

And the girls' school held 75 pupils, ranging in age between five and thirty — married women among them (90% of them illiterate).

The visits we paid to the houses of the village, to look into its problems and its needs, helped us direct our care toward the education of the grown women, in the belief that the ideal teaching is that in which schoolwork and the life of the environment are of one kind, and that the matter taught must suit the needs of the village.

We saw with our own eyes that the home in the village stands in urgent need of a care that would guide the mother and the grown girl in how to manage the household, rear the child, look after the children's health, and the other domestic concerns. We therefore set aside the afternoon hours for helping the mothers and the women advanced in years: special classes were held for the teaching of sewing and handwork, and for hearing lectures on household management and the care of the child, and medical lectures with the showing of instructive motion pictures. The attendance at these classes was very great indeed.

For it became clear to us that it is most necessary to attend to the education of those advanced in years, to complete the work of the village school; for education does not end with school — it accompanies life and continues as long as life continues.

And the happiness of those illiterate women who, by the end of the six weeks, were able to write and read! They would seize every opportunity to profit from every lesson and every piece of guidance offered them.

As for the day of farewell, it was one of the most magnificent of scenes and the one that sank deepest into our souls. Sorrow and grief settled over all the people of the village, small and great, men and women; tears were shed in abundance out of grief at parting from us; and all of them implored us not to forget them, and to come back to them next summer.

The success we met with in this short time was more than we had expected. We all felt that our presence had been a source of good and blessing for the village of Ain Yaacoub and the neighboring villages. The expressions of appreciation and admiration we heard from everyone, women and men alike, kept increasing our hope of carrying on with this project. For in this little time we were able to spread the spirit of the love of learning and progress among the people of that village, especially the women.

Nor can my pen express or describe the feeling