What Has Become of the Beggars in Lebanon?

... Painful facts are revealed to us in this report by Miss Wadad Abu Nader, social worker at the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon ... lifting the veil from a social reality that we all have the right to learn about, and to know what results it is leading to ...

Lebanon talked for a while about those vagrant and begging children whom the authorities arrested, and perhaps of late it has forgotten their story, for all its importance, and let their cause slip from mind, with all the sorrows it suggests, the burden it carries, and the question marks it raises!..

Human and social duty requires of us, for the sake of these children and for the sake of Lebanon, that we raise more than one question and await more than one answer, from the people and from the government alike.

To what fate have these little ones of ours come — children who wandered the streets for a time and fell victim to a corrupt system of upbringing, to ignorance and neglect?

Has anyone felt that the number of vagrants in the city has gone down?

I believe only a few raised the first question. As for the second matter, many are those who have noticed, in their comings and goings on this street and that, in this crowd and that one, the dwindling or vanishing of those who used to block their way — barefoot, ragged, hungry, with their sallow, wasted faces, their abject, insolent words, and the pickpocketing and thefts they used to commit.

I believe many felt this and cried, "Thank God, we are rid of them!"

★

To these we say: not so fast...

Put your hand in ours and come, let us look out through a new window onto a new horizon, through which we may glimpse these little ones as children of our own, pieces of society's flesh walking upon the earth. They had no will in what they came to and wallowed in; rather we all alike — citizens and state — had a share in their dark fate and in the gloomy world of their existence.

And it falls to us, in answer to the call of necessity and the imperative of human cooperation, before we thank God over this misfortune, to grasp the extent of our share of responsibility and of duty, and to take part in the salvation of these innocent souls, who still have time enough before them to grow into conscious manhood, sound in body and in mind...

★

Eighty children were arrested in two nights and placed in the old Finance building — girls and boys ranging in age between seven and fifteen springs.

The investigating judge assigned to the case questioned them

and handed their case over to the Juvenile Court, which in turn referred their files to the association of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles, since the case of every juvenile must be accompanied by a detailed social inquiry.

And here we do our duty.

The substance of this duty lies in studying the juvenile's circumstances in his environment, his family, and his work, and in preparing a detailed file on all his conditions and conduct — one that throws light on the reality of his situation and on the things that worked together to make of him this vagrant. What helps us to guide him better, and helps the courts in their turn to take measures suited to his nature, his family, his environment, and his society, is our belief that the juvenile is not a criminal but a maladjusted child, whom the factors already mentioned helped push to where he ended up.

The value of the work of the delegates of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles shows itself in the conscientious, scientific inquiry that she alone is able to carry out, thanks to the tenderness, affection, intuition, and patience that woman displays — qualities that move the family to trust and instill reassurance in the souls of those children.

She cannot succeed in any task she undertakes except when this trust is present and there is mutual response between us and those children — which is the first thing we strive to achieve in the work we do.

Faced with this reality — the reality of these eighty arrested vagrants — we began our work by interviewing each juvenile separately, so as to learn his condition in all its aspects, and by getting in touch with his family and with every person connected with the juvenile. To hasten this, the social workers rallied and volunteered for the task, contributing every effort, energy, and awareness to preparing the first steps for these deprived vagrant children — which helped us, and helped the courts, to decide their fate for their own good and reform, and for the good and salvation of society.

And some conscientious officials hurried to extend a helping hand with warmth and understanding.

Then their families came...

And here...

we found ourselves before a new tragedy.

We heard insults and defiance, and we kept silent.

We went on doing our duty.

The first thing we did was to move them out of the Finance building, and in this we succeeded; the president of the Juvenile Court, with human feeling, answered our plea, gave of his time outside official working hours, and completed their proceedings.

And so it was that judgment was passed on them.

Some were handed over to their families — the result of the social inquiry we had conducted — on condition that they be bound by a system of supervision by the social workers, so that their fate could be watched over with reassurance.

And some were placed in the private orphanages, which understood in their turn the gravity of the matter and made a sacrifice in accepting them, despite means that scarcely permitted them to do so — on the understanding that these institutions remain in contact and cooperation with the office of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles. This was accomplished with the assistance of the Ministry of Social Affairs, which took action and issued a decree concerning the acceptance of sentenced juveniles in private institutions.

And after this...

and after the families had felt and grasped the value of the work and the result we had reached, they came giving thanks, and they apologized