A group of the members of the "Mabarra" at one of their meetings...
Blessed be youth! For wherever it is found, there is effective will, there is fruitful work, there is activity, vitality, and perseverance!
I called on them at their permanent headquarters, in one of the quarters of new Damascus, and was received by faces that spoke contentment, assurance, and goodness — faces bespeaking a native nobility in souls steeped in the spirit of love and tenderness. And my astonishment grew when I saw among them not one who had passed her thirtieth year! All of them young married women and unmarried girls — the old generation has no place among them!
The meeting of the "Mabarra"
council was drawing to its close, so I waited a few minutes while Dr. Marzuba Quwatli finished reading the final report. I noticed in it a great deal of order and a great deal of sharing-out of the work,
with no distinction between one member and another, or between mother and spinster — the rule of attendance, perseverance, and division of labor applies to every one... this one in the workroom, that one in the schools, another in teaching, another in supervision, and so on through the duties distributed among the members according to inclination and competence.
My turn came, and the president of the society, Miss Malak Kuzbari, approached me smiling, proud of the information she was about to give me on the society's activity, and began to tell its story from the year 1945 down to the date at which we stand. She said:
"When we began work our number did not exceed fifteen members, and all the money we had did not pass two hundred and fifty Syrian liras, gathered from the contributions of the members themselves... Our first spur was a faith and a resolve with
One of the institute's classes during the lesson in handwork and sewing...