Personality of the Month: Mrs. Alice Alfred Nakkash Speaks about the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles"

Anyone acquainted with the various fields of women's activity in Lebanon soon finds his attention drawn to a name that stands, by right, in the vanguard of the active members in more than one field. The bearer of this name is Mrs. Alice Alfred Nakkash. She will speak here about the most important of her social projects, the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles."

Mrs. Nakkash is one of the leading figures of the women's renaissance in Lebanon, and one of the most active and most devoted of our ladies in giving her time and her thought to those humanitarian projects that call for a woman's heart, a woman's hand, and a woman's giving...

For a full year Mrs. Nakkash supervised the editorial committee of The Woman's Voice magazine. For all her high social standing, hers is a modest personality, close to every heart, kind and tender — and this contributes greatly to her success in the work we shall discuss together.

Q — The first question: when, Mrs. Nakkash, did you found the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles"?

A — We founded the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles" in Lebanon in 1939, and in 1944 the criminal courts came to regard this association as an essential element in the application of social theories in the trial of delinquent juveniles.

Q — You mean, Mrs. Nakkash, that delegates from your association attend the court sessions and give their opinion on the fate of the juveniles who are brought before the courts for committing first offenses such as pickpocketing, theft, moral decline, and the like?

A — Yes; and most of the sentences handed down against delinquent juveniles are given on the strength of the opinion of the association's delegate, who will have conducted a wide social investigation into the boy's environment and among the members of his family; and on the grounds and findings of this report the court relies in giving its judgment on the fate of these delinquent juveniles.

Q — It is without doubt the best and fairest of methods, because the delegate will necessarily have treated the child's problem from its social and psychological sides, and taken into account all the circumstances that led him to commit the social crime; consequently her judgment upon him comes nearer to justice than any other judgment issuing from the court alone, out of a merely external interrogation of the juvenile and of the two witnesses!

A — Of course, Mrs. Shayboub — the more so as the delegates who carry out the social investigation and study the problem from all its sides are specialists in this very work. They are, to begin with, licensed nurses or holders of the baccalaureate, and beyond this they have studied their social work seriously, for a period of twelve months.

Q — Truly, that is a fine and thorough specialization. And how many social workers are there, Mrs. Nakkash?

A — Their number at present is only three, and this number is very small in proportion to the breadth of the field in which we work; but our material means do not allow more than three social workers at the present time.

Q — Naturally, for your budget, it seems, falls short even of securing the salaries of the employees who watch over the interests of these social services, which demand effort and perseverance... this apart from the efforts of the trainees and of the volunteer ladies from among the members of the association... And now, Mrs. Nakkash, let us pass to a second question: what is the most important social matter that you are concerned with at the present time?

* Broadcast in "Woman's Talk" from Radio Lebanon.

A — The Union for the Protection of Juveniles, after having striven hard for the application of the law on the employment of children and women in industrial establishments, is now directing its attention, in particular, to the question of vagrants and beggars and of those wishing to enter orphanages and schools, and especially to delinquent juveniles...

Q — And approximately how many social investigations do the delegates conduct in a year? I mean, do you keep statistics on this?

A — Of course; our office, situated on the second floor of the Municipality building, takes care to keep count of as many of these investigations as possible. Their number for the year 1950 reached about three hundred (300), and for 1951, (400).

Q — And you said, Mrs. Nakkash, that the court relies on these investigations in giving its judgment on delinquent juveniles?

A — Yes; and after that we send them to a special reformatory, the "Juvenile Reform Institute at Dahr al-Sawan," which our association had the honor of establishing and equipping.

Q — It is indeed a great and useful work. And when did you establish this reformatory?

A — In 1947.

Q — Yes; and I recall that we read a long illustrated reportage about it, by Mr. Najati Sidqi, in a past issue of The Woman's Voice magazine. Indeed, I cannot but express my utmost admiration for this project, because it treats the problems of delinquent juveniles in a positive and useful way, instead of these juveniles being thrown, while still tender of years, into prison with the grown criminals — as if to prepare them and train them for a life of crime!! By this work of yours — I mean by founding the "Juvenile Reformatory" — you have saved a great number of delinquent juveniles from a dark future toward which they would inevitably have been driven, had it not been for this institution...

And now let us return to the very heart of your own work: what are, according to your experience, Mrs. Nakkash, the most important causes that fling children and juveniles into committing first offenses?

A — After long experience, we have found that the most important causes leading to juvenile delinquency are poverty, ignorance, and unemployment, and that the absence of compulsory education and of vocational schools throws these children into the streets and alleys, among bad companions.

Q — And how many of them there are in our streets, especially the mean ones! I do not blame these juveniles in the least, for most of the time they live in broken, poor, wretched families. Where is a child to play, in a house made up of a single miserable room no bigger than two meters, with the damp oozing from its floor? No doubt he finds the alleys a roomier field for his legs, and bad company sweeter and dearer to his ear than his parents' quarreling over a crust of bread... Poor juveniles! They deserve all our sympathy and all our tenderness; and it seems to me that they find in the social workers their best refuge.

A — Indeed. These juveniles, who lack the affection of their parents and of their families generally, find for themselves no refuge and no helper like the social workers. They place their trust in them, return to them for guidance and advice, and confide to them secrets that they keep hidden from their own families...

Q — And do you have in mind, Mrs. Nakkash, living examples of this trust?

A — Yes, there are many examples that show how these delinquent juveniles feel reassured and at ease in pouring out what is hidden in their souls to the social workers... Some time ago the social worker met one of the juveniles, and he asked her advice as to whether he should take work as a servant in a pharmacy or keep on learning the blacksmith's trade. The worker advised him to stay with his father in the blacksmith's trade; and since he was without schooling, the blacksmith's trade was better for his future than service in a pharmacy...

Q — And did he act on her advice?

A — Naturally; and it is among the duties of the worker to follow up these cases, verify their results, and record them... A few days ago a boy met me in the street — intelligence showing plainly on him — and implored me to place him in the juvenile reformatory so that he might learn, because his family is poor and cannot give him schooling...

Q — And had this boy any previous acquaintance with you?

A — No; but he had heard about us and about the reformatory from his companions, and he came running to beg us to help him toward learning.

Q — And naturally you helped him... And do you, Mrs. Nakkash, keep in touch with the delinquent juveniles while they are in the reformatory?

A — Naturally; and it lies at the core of our responsibility to correspond with the juveniles in the reformatory, to visit them, to consult with them on their problems, and to encourage them by the positive methods that do so much good. As for the negative methods — beating, threats, and intimidation — they are of no use in most cases.

Q — Naturally; we live in an age in which modern education has reached a degree of progress that justifies pronouncing such a categorical judgment... And now I have another question: do you, in your social institution, concern yourselves with juveniles who are exposed to delinquency — I mean, before they have committed any offense? Is there a watch kept over abnormal cases, and a means of treating them?

A — Of course; the social worker has a thousand eyes, trained on the wretched social environments exposed to these conditions.

Q — Can you recall for us a particular incident in which the social worker saved a particular child from falling and going astray?

A — Yes, Mrs. Shayboub. Some time ago the worker discovered a child, orphaned of both father and mother, living with an aunt in poor circumstances who had not the means to give him schooling... The worker discovered him picking up printed scraps of paper from the street and sitting in a corner of it, trying to puzzle out their signs and so to teach himself to read alone! In his eyes were intelligence and a strong desire for learning, and he begged her to help him!

Q — Poor child!... What did the worker do for him?

A — She applied with all zeal and concern to the Ministry of Health, and thanks to her energy the Ministry placed him, at its own expense, in the institution of Father Cortbawi, where he will have the opportunity to learn an honorable trade, in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic...

Q — A great work indeed — God give you strength... And before we close this session, and in view of your experience, Mrs. Nakkash, as president of this institution for eight years... I should like to hear your opinion on the future of the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles" in Lebanon...

A — I am very sorry to say that public opinion in Lebanon is still ignorant of the gravity of this social responsibility which the "Union for the Protection of Juveniles" carries in Lebanon, and that personal donations, together with the ten thousand liras we receive yearly from the government, do not cover the expenses of the office and the staff.

Q — That is certain. And what do you propose in this situation?

A — I consider that the only solution is for the government to adopt this project through our institution and through the other private institutions, by extending to them subsidies large enough to cover all the expenses, after the example of the advanced countries, such as England and France.

And I consider, finally, that raising the social level in our ignorant and wretched environment is the best positive means of fighting Communism and of stamping it out.

Q — You are right, Mrs. Nakkash, and in closing I cannot but offer my heartfelt praise to your energetic person and to the twenty members who work with you for the protection and rescue of the juveniles of our country. I appeal to the honored government to give due consideration and study to the sound proposal you have just put forward; and I hope that this project of yours will be among the projects that woman will take upon her shoulders on the day when it is her right to say her word in the Lebanese Parliament.

A — God willing...!!