'Dahr al-Bashiq': A Creed and a Faith

My sister reader... may your reading of this 'reportage' have awakened in the depths of your soul a surging feeling of enthusiasm and concern, and a desire to help these patients in the Dahr al-Bashiq sanatorium — the largest national humanitarian institution in Lebanon. Perhaps in your library there are some entertaining books you no longer need; hasten now to send them to the office of 'The Woman's Voice,' which in turn will take on the task of delivering them to our dear friends the patients.

How strong man is, at times!
How strong, when he has believed in man and in the values of humanity!
How strong, when he harnesses the powers of man in the service of man!
In this beautiful patch of earth, in the early years of this century, people feared consumption! They isolated the sick man for fear of contagion, and left him without treatment for fear of scandal, to escape people's suspicions, their shunning of the family, and their flight from it.
And there arose in our country a handful of people — a handful few in number, rich, strong in faith — individuals who believed in man, in the sanctity of man and in his right to life. They were: Doctors Bishara Mansi, Iskandar Baroudi, and Salim Jalakh, and Messrs. Jirji Baz, Qustantin Khoury, Jirji Sursock, Salim Kassab, and As'ad Khairallah; and together they founded the Tuberculosis Health Refuge.
They sought out the sick man and went to him in his home and in his isolation; they brought him treatment where he lay in his bed, and treated his family along with him for the delusions nesting in their minds.
And in 1908 they felt that they must expand the work — they must build

a hospital! And on the hilltop of Dahr al-Bashiq they hewed the first stones. They built their dreams into a real edifice upon the rocks.

But the First World War fell upon them as it fell upon the country, and the Ottoman army occupied their building. When it left in 1918, it left behind demolished walls, having used the timbers for fuel.

How strong man is when he harnesses the powers of man in the service of humanity!! The people of Lebanon believed in the group's mission, and the charitable among them answered their appeal; quickly they brought timber and rebuilt upon the strong, firm rocks.

In 1923 the sanatorium admitted its first patient. Dr. Ni'ma took charge of the treatment there in 1927, receiving well-to-do patients along with the poor, and its buildings kept increasing until today it comprises fifteen buildings holding 200 patients, whose comfort is watched over by five physicians, three surgeons, 67 workers, and five nurses.

These long years have passed, and hundreds of the sick have seen in it a hope — seen in it a beautiful future after their dreams had crumbled. They enter it as human wreckage, and go out from it into the world all vitality and energy, to take up their ordinary lives again!

The sanatorium lives on various resources. There are the fees paid by the wealthy among the patients, or by the governments of the Arab East for their patients! Nor do the charitable of the country forget the blessing of health, and they give what their souls prompt them to give, to help the deprived attain this precious health. And there are the charity fêtes held by the committee that supervises its work, to gather funds and donations — at their head the benefactor Gabriel Trad, president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society and of the Dahr al-Bashiq sanatorium.

The Syrian Society for the Relief of the Consumptive, in Boston, provided the money needed to build a modern building containing two operating rooms fitted with the latest that the art of surgery has attained in instruments, organization, and skill! The sanatorium has an X-ray apparatus that is the fourth of its kind in the world; the Lebanese Dr. Shaoul (of Deir al-Qamar), together with the German Dr. Grind, supervised the drawing of its design in the workshops of Germany.

The sanatorium contains the latest that science and medicine have achieved. The physicians in charge of treatment make two rounds daily to examine the patients, and every two weeks each patient stands before the X-ray machine for a thorough general examination. The doctors meet twice a week to review the examination of each patient, following the course of his illness from the day he entered the hospital. And the patients await this examination with hearts humbled in prayer! They will be healed, and will return to their families after the long parting!! The sanatorium's registers for 1952 show that only six patients died during

the year, while the disease was arrested in 27, and 111 were cured and left the sanatorium.

The days pass slow and heavy, with their long, monotonous hours! The patient feels his distance from his family and his home, and his longing for them; his nerves grow taut and sometimes flare up! And yet he sees around him nothing but cheerful, patient faces that help him toward recovery and toward bearing his pains.

Often some patients feel, after their cure, that they too must help lighten the sufferings of the afflicted, and they stay on at the sanatorium to serve the sick, forgetting the outside world in the flood of their joy at being able to help others, having learned for themselves the worth of such help.

To lighten the weight of the slow, heavy days with their long hours, the administration tries to entertain the patients, sometimes showing them motion-picture films despite the cost. One benefactor presented a projector after visiting the sanatorium and sensing the importance of this side of things. Reading in the sanatorium's library helps to entertain the patients, as do quiet games and listening to the radio!

How long the hours are for a man who cannot move; how long the days and the months while he waits — waits for recovery.

How long they are while he feels alone, far from the world!

And yet, how beautiful they are when a man feels that he is not forgotten in his pain. There is someone watching over his comfort; there, far off in the world, is someone who thought of sending him a radio, of sending a book, of sending a woolen sock! He is not alone! There is someone thinking of him!

How strong man is, at times!

How strong, when he believes in man and in the values of humanity!