Beginning in 2022 the Trust has worked with the Archdiocese to assist three of its most hard-pressed and multi-confessional parish schools situated in the Beirut suburbs of Baouchrieh, Bourj Hammoud and Nabaa. They number some 500 pupils fairly evenly divided between boys and girls aged between 4-12. Prior to Lebanon’s economic crisis the schools relied for funding on three main sources namely the Archdiocese, grants from the Ministry of Education and financial contributions from parents. Due to the economic crisis the entire burden of funding has fallen on the limited funds available from the Archdiocese.

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The Trust has been supporting these schools in a variety of practical ways: paying for essential repairs, blinds to reduce harmful seasonal fluctuations in unheated classrooms, replacement furniture for a teachers common room that had been vandalised by intruders (while ensuring that the broken furniture could at least be donated to families in need through the assistance of a local order of Nuns and where possible repaired). At the urgent request of the three schools one of the Trustees personally took 100kgs of necessary school supplies to Beirut kindly donated by parents, pupils and staff of one of our partner schools in West London just in time for the opening of the school year. In mid 2025 the Trust financed the complete and long delayed refurbishment of the dilapidated washroom facilities at one of the schools making a significant impact on the daily life of both 120 pupils and their teachers.

 

For a number of years the Archdiocese has been in discussions with several partners including the Trust to create a centre for severe learning difficulties and after school remedial teaching in response to the escalating number of affected children in their schools. In 2025 the Archdiocese made a building available for the creation of this centre with capacity for 200 children, received a donation from one of their partners to cover most of the refurbishment cost. The Trust was approached with a request to provide funding for the installation of solar panels on the roof and the necessary work to make the centre self sufficient in electricity and heating. Aside from the obvious benefits including environmental advantages, this would result in a significant cost saving in a country where the collapse of the state electricity grid has forced people to rely on expensive private operators. The Trust has agreed in principle and is currently fund raising.