In the past five years, TCCT has had to navigate a series of significant crises in Lebanon.There was the devastating Beirut Port Explosion in 2020, the Covid Pandemic 2020-2022 followed by the ongoing Israel/Hezbollah conflict since 2023. These came on top of an economic and financial collapse which has had a devastating impact on ordinary families which had gained momentum since 2019. These events came on top of the impact on Lebanon hosting two million Syrian refugees adding further financial and social pressures.

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Following an introduction by our friends at Caritas Lebanon, in 2022 TCCT announced a cooperation/partnership agreement with the Maronite Archdiocese of Antelias to provide assistance to three parish schools located in the poorer areas of Beirut’s suburbs, serving 500 children between the ages of 4-11. They needed basic essentials. We provided one school with large mats for the 4/5 year olds classrooms which made it easier for the teachers to use teaching aids with children sitting on otherwise cold floors, in another school we provided blinds for all the windows to retain heat and reduce light. In one instance we replaced furniture for a teacher’s common room which had been vandalised by intruders and used the opportunity to fund long delayed repairs to the staff kitchen. In this instance at TCCT’s suggestion the broken furniture was re-cycled through a local order of nuns and distributed to poor families. During 2023 Trustees personally delivered to Beirut urgently requested school supplies shortly before the beginning of the school year. Special mention should be made that this exercise was made possible by the generosity of the parents, pupils and staff of the Cardinal Wiseman School in West London. This is part of our continuing efforts to link schools in Beirut and London in the hope that learning about the challenges of school life in Lebanon will widen their horizons. Later that year, a TCCT grant paid for urgent roof repairs damaged by the Beirut port explosion at one of the parish schools.

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It was in 2024 that TCCT was first approached by the Director of Parish Schools at the Archdiocese of Antelias to consider collaborating to create a centre for the treatment of the children exhibiting learning difficulties in their parish schools. Their numbers had escalated alarmingly in step with the deterioration of conditions in the city.

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2025 proved to be a busy one for the Trust. We provided a grant for the long delayed complete rebuilding of the dilapidated washrooms at one of the parish schools where some 120 children were taught in Bourj Hammoud. The centre for learning difficulties and remedial teaching with a capacity for 200 children opened at the end of the year. A grant from the Trust made the centre completely self-sufficient in electricity and heating through the installation of a solar powered system. This will have the added benefit of a significant annual cost saving. Most important it will protect the children from the extremes of heat and cold.

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I would like to thank our donors for their generosity and all the Trustees and our consultant in Beirut for their continuing commitment.

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Professor Ian Linden CMG

Chairman