In the Social Field — The Lebanese School of Social Training

It is the first of its kind in the Middle East — and no wonder, for Lebanon was and remains the pioneer in this field. Social service, moreover, is of recent date, the child of individual liberty; it arose to establish, through the consolidation of relations among individuals, mutual respect on a footing of equality. And this age of ours still strives to preserve the sanctity of persons and to raise the social level by encouraging the individual to do his duty, by defining that duty, and by helping him — not by way of material almsgiving alone, but above all by encouraging him to fulfill this duty himself and to face its difficulties with his own energy. The difference between the one method and the other is that the latter preserves the individual's dignity and his moral and social standing, whereas charity pure and simple places him in the position of the debtor before the creditor — an abject position that obstructs social progress and often does harm, for it stirs in the depths of souls revolt, rancor, and hatred.

The first credit for founding this school belongs to a nun of the Sisters of Jesus the Redeemer, Dr. Henriette Risico, who received her medical training at the French Faculty of Medicine in Beirut. She loved Lebanon and consecrated to its service her energy and her qualifications. This zealous nun supervised for a time the direction of the school of licensed midwives attached to the said faculty, and from her close contacts, above all with expectant and nursing mothers and their many likes, the necessity of organizing social service became clear to her. She therefore founded a center for the care of motherhood and childhood in one of the poor quarters of Achrafieh (the Syriac quarter behind the Hôtel-Dieu). The activity of this center expanded, and the necessity became plain of resorting to specialists in the social field who would ensure the service in its most complete form.

After that, Mother Risico thought, and thought long... and the fruit of her hopes was a school for the preparation of women workers in the social field, which she undertook to found at the beginning of October of 1948, after the issue of Decree No. 11549, dated April 10 of 1948, officially authorizing the establishment of the Lebanese School of Social Training, and of another decree, No. 2500, dated July 26 of the same year, declaring the said school to be of public benefit. Her first concern was that this school should be stamped with a purely Lebanese character, so that it might fulfill the desired aim and prepare Lebanese women for work in the national milieu, with a view to reviving it and raising its level. To realize this idea she called on the help of two nuns of her sisterhood, the one of Syrian origin holding a licentiate in letters, the other of French nationality holding the diplomas of nursing and of social services. The first year was limited to certain licensed midwives and nurses who had assisted Mother Risico at the aforementioned center for the care of motherhood and childhood. This school had assumed official character after Mother Risico had studied with the Lebanese authorities the programs to be followed; the Ministry of Education shared in preparing these programs, which it drew from the Western countries after adapting them to the nature of Lebanese reality.

On September 20 of 1949, the said Ministry issued Decree No. 16315, creating an official diploma of social-health service called 'the Certificate of Social Training,' whose examinations it supervises jointly with representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Public Assistance. As for the number of social aides who have graduated from this school up to now, they are twenty-four: one of them Palestinian, six Syrians, and seventeen Lebanese, working in the various social institutions, governmental and private. The school itself, moreover, has become a center for spreading the social spirit through all Lebanese circles.

The students of this school are required to have completed their twentieth year, and to have obtained the nursing diploma from an officially licensed school and the diploma of licensed midwife, or to be holders of the baccalaureate, on condition that they afterward complete a theoretical and practical medical course lasting a full year.

The period of instruction there is likewise a full year, beginning in October and ending on the same date of the following year with the official examinations, a second session being held for those who fail in the month of February. As to the courses followed, we shall confine ourselves to saying that they are varied and comprehensive, preparing the student for fruitful work in the various social fields: the care of childhood and motherhood; concern for delinquent juveniles; health and social supervision in the schools and in the family setting; medical and social services in factories and workshops; the treatment of rural family affairs; and the combating of social scourges — above all chest diseases and venereal diseases, unsanitary dwellings, and the like.

The theoretical courses are medical, legal, economic, legislative, psychological, and pedagogical, and are given in the evening between four and seven; the practical training takes place at the social centers daily before noon, and its aim is that the trainee should face social problems at close quarters and grow accustomed to treating them.

As for the body responsible for the direction of the school, it consists of Mother Risico as president, assisted by a directress of studies, a professional trainer, and a company of teachers — physicians, men of law, and specialists in the pedagogical and social sciences. All of these have donated their time and their energy in the cause of national social service and in aid of this school, which cannot bear the burden of their fees; the social centers, governmental and private, likewise share in the school's activity, opening their doors to the social aides and thus opening before them the field for their practical humanitarian work.

Such is the Lebanese School of Social Training: a dream coming true in Lebanon, a lofty mission that sprouts and bears fruit — a social service branching out through Lebanese circles, lightening afflictions, fighting moral epidemics, and raising the level at the hands of women specialists in every field.

And this social service is the agent of liberty. Its aim is to preserve the individual as an individual worthy of trust and respect, whose first right is that his dignity not be degraded nor the sanctity of his person touched; it restores to him confidence in himself, and helps him rise from his stumble to realize his hopes, after setting his steps aright and smoothing his paths.

It is a mission of love, understanding, and devotion.