Beggars and little chewing-gum sellers are given the chance to learn and to play at the club of the Eagles Foundation, on Bliss Street

The Eagles Foundation (they could as well have given themselves the name of the Society for the Advancement of Civic Conscience) is non-sectarian and non-political. Its members, young men and young women, came together around the year 1946 to establish a club for recreation and culture; and when the year 1951 came, it suddenly became clear to them that they had developed into a solid nucleus, and they took to discussing, as every Arab does, everything under the sun. The best of their debates were on questions closely tied to metaphysical philosophy. And they found that they were agreed on certain fundamental principles, among them: — that true, lasting social reform must begin with the individual; — that the growth of the social responsibility indispensable for building a sound society in the Arab countries will not be accomplished at the hands of the existing governments alone, and that they, caring about this question as they do, are bound to make the attempt and to do something of the kind.

And the Eagles Foundation is not a society for social welfare only. For though it has its social projects, it was founded at bottom to spread a certain idea. It seeks not so much to do good directly as to create in Lebanese society an interest that will urge it on to do good. The Foundation claims that its pioneers are rising to a task at which the religious and political institutions have failed, and this because their program is bounded by no narrow partisanship and driven by no sectarianism. Their first aim is to create the good citizen.

One of them said: "Membership in the Eagles Foundation is not merely an activity taken up in spare moments; membership in it is a way of life." In their daily lives the members try to live the principles on which their foundation rests. They set aside one percent of their income for the Foundation, and give generously of time and energy to carry out its broad program.

The Foundation's membership is a nucleus of toilers in the field of social service in Lebanese society. Among them are the secretary-general of the Union of Civic Organizations, the assistant head of the Department of Social Affairs in the Reconstruction Service, and the director of the social-health center of the workers' unions situated in the Mazraa quarter of the city of Beirut; among them are some members of the committee of the Lebanese Youth Centers organization, of the executive committee of the Lebanese Scouts association, of the Commandos Club in Lebanon, and of the Committee for Aid to the Blind. And among them are two members (a man and his wife) who own a farm in the Bekaa and are carrying out a rural-revival project in a neighboring village.

The Eagles have many other social projects. Every evening there gathers at their club

a band of children — chewing-gum peddlers and beggars — brought