The Countryside in Our Land

In our last issue we mentioned the lecture delivered at the al-Nour Club by Mrs. Loreen Shoucair Rihani, president of the Village Welfare Society, on "Reviving the Lebanese Countryside." In fulfillment of our promise to our readers, we here print a summary of this valuable lecture, for the general benefit.

The story of the countryside in Lebanon draws for us many different pictures. If you come with me on a little tour of the villages of Lebanon — to its north and its south, to its Metn and its Chouf — you will find pictures in which darkness has prevailed over light, and pictures in which light prevails over darkness.

The villages of the Lebanese countryside number about two thousand. Some are large and some small, some far and some near; some keep pace with the procession of civilization — electricity lights them, learning tends them, and paved roads join them to the network of public highways — and some have been left behind by the procession, whom deprivation has set down in the lap of ignorance, poverty, and disease. It is to this part of the countryside that I confine my talk, and I lay before you its condition in the various fields:

The cultural condition:
1 - Illiteracy is widespread in most of the villages, and many of them lack schools.
2 - The existing schools are mostly elementary and much neglected.

The health condition:
1 - Doctors are very few, and to most villages a doctor goes only rarely.
2 - The remote villages lack even a nurse and a licensed midwife.
3 - Contagious diseases spread, because prevention is not provided.
4 - In some villages swamps abound, where flies and mosquitoes breed.
5 - Others still lack latrines and sanitary conveniences.

The economic condition:
1 - Unemployment is widespread in most of the villages, and it has caused and still causes the double emigration: the emigration of the country people to the city, and their emigration abroad.
2 - The peasant is poor, and cannot care for his land or keep it up.
3 - The peasant is ignorant of the modern scientific and technical methods of agriculture.
4 - The industries that would give life to the village do not exist.
5 - The countryside lacks industrial and agricultural schools.
6 - Some villages lack water for drinking and irrigation.
7 - And others lack electricity.

The social condition:
1 - Some villages are still isolated and solitary: no road reaches them, and no stranger comes to them.
2 - The isolation of these remote villages is deepened by their lack of electricity.
3 - The countryside lacks places of recreation to rest the peasant and refresh him.

Thus has the village fallen behind the city, retreating into its ignorance and its torpor, and the balance between the country's two principal pillars — the city and the village — has been upset; and this upsetting of the balance spells danger, and collapse. If the countryside is one of the country's fundamental pillars, is it permissible that it be abandoned, or its affairs neglected? We do not deny our government its concern for reform and public works, nor our ministry its building of schools, hospitals, and dispensaries, its opening of roads, and many other works besides; nor do we deny the services and efforts of the various societies and their work toward raising the country's standing — not to mention the popular consciousness in the country, alive to its responsibilities and aspiring to reform. Yet most of these efforts are expended in the city, and the countryside's share of them is but little indeed. Woman felt these responsibilities and wished to perform her share of the work; hence the Village Welfare Society, a new women's society founded in the year 1951. And what can a society of recent date, of scant experience and limited numbers, do with a problem as grave as the problem of the countryside?

The members of this institution visited a number of the villages of Lebanon and studied their social, cultural, and economic condition, and then set to work, taking upon themselves the raising of the countryside's level. But how to begin, and from where to begin? Should it confront ignorance first, or disease, or poverty? Which of these ills is the gravest in danger and the worst in consequence?

A sense of responsibility, then zeal and faith, set the helm of the work in motion; so we bore down upon ignorance to fight it, and upon poverty and disease to make war on them. From here we began, and our first aim was the education of woman, and then to turn to account the gifts and possibilities of the village by way of training in a trade, so as to forestall the drift to the city and raise the family's economic level. To carry out this aim, the society established three centers in three of the villages, addressing their problems.

1 - The first center is at Mounsef, a village in northern Lebanon, 45 kilometers from Beirut, lying to the northeast of the town of Jbeil. This center consists of a room next to the village school, in which the village women learn handwork — the weaving of bath rugs and household articles, and the elements of sewing — as well as learning to preserve dried figs in small bundles that are easy to sell. The figs of that region are famous for their excellence.

2 - The second center is in the village of Shatfin, in the Chouf district, about 60 kilometers from Beirut. This village has nothing but a small, much-neglected elementary school, and most of the village girls are illiterate; so the society began by fighting illiteracy and by teaching the village women the canning of vegetables and fruit, until some of them now can skillfully preserve the various vegetables that abound in their village — tomatoes, string beans, and carrots — and then to make compotes and jams, such as quince, fig, and others.

3 - The third center is in the village of Maarakeh, in southern Lebanon near the city of Tyre, about 115 kilometers from Beirut. When the society found that this village lacked most of the basic requisites of advancement, it began first by fighting the rampant illiteracy, and founded a small school for this purpose. This village has not yet specialized in a trade, for it is still in the stage of preparation.

Over and above what has been mentioned, the society exerts itself to secure the doctor and the nurse, and presents films, lectures, and health, agricultural, and social pamphlets at its various centers. And the society calls on certain societies, institutions, and individuals for help in accomplishing what is beyond its own power. The lecturers in the fields of health and agriculture are physicians and agricultural engineers who sacrifice their own time to help us in serving the countryside.

This is the greater part of the work of our society, the Village Welfare Society — the seed of a small work we began a few years ago, which has grown and developed, so that we have come to bear its responsibilities more and more.

New organizations have today begun to take an interest in the countryside, and many efforts have begun to be made to raise its level; but all these efforts need to be guided by organization and unification, guided by experts and specialists, guided by mutual connection and cooperation with one another. And nothing will bind these efforts together but a general rural program undertaken by a special body in which government and people take part — a program embracing all sides of rural life and keeping step with its particular circumstances and conditions, so as to achieve for the countryside a comprehensive renaissance that penetrates to its very core.

The Lebanese countryside will not rise, nor will its level be raised, so long as the individual in Lebanon does not feel that he is a part of society, responsible first for meeting his own needs and responsible second for his society. For individuals depend upon one another: the comfort and well-being of the individual affect the well-being of the whole, and the well-being of the whole is drawn from the well-being of the individual.

The countryside in Lebanon will not rise so long as we do not create love for it — the love of its own children. How many are they who left the village in pursuit of learning, and, once they had gained it, were lured by the city and deserted the village that awaited them day after day.

Who among us, having studied, and having obtained a high degree or specialized in some rural field, went back to his village to do his duty toward his land and his surroundings, toward his society and his homeland?

Which of the wealthy emigrants has returned to his peaceful village and founded a factory there, or established an industry, or stirred anything at all — fighting unemployment and emigration, victorious and proud?

Which of those who moved from the village to the city in search of a livelihood, and whom fortune favored and who prospered, went back and looked to it with pride, or owned that he is a mountaineer, a villager?

Yes, we love our village; we love its generosity and its hospitality; we love to sing of its beauty and its gentleness; we love the tale of the threshing floor, the crops, and the sparrows; we love its terraces and its hills and its evenings of good company. Beautiful is our village, and beautiful is the countryside in Lebanon — but are we preserving its beauty? And are we striving to revive it? Shall we content ourselves with love of our village, love of our countryside, love of its evenings of good company, while we stay far from it and stir not a finger? Will the countryside rise while we — government and people — leave it in the corner of neglect and oblivion?

The countryside claims from us a right it holds over us — what, then, are we going to do?