The humanitarian action carried out by the Order of Malta in Lebanon was at the heart of a conference organised at the French Senate last week, on 26 November, presided by its President Gérard Larcher. The number two of the French state called for the organisation of an inter-Lebanese conference on the sovereignty of the Lebanon, in support of the Lebanese population: “We have a particular responsibility to raise awareness on the situation of our Lebanese friends” said President Larcher.
The conference was attended by several representatives from the medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and associative worlds, as well as members of parliament and ministers, who came from Monaco and Germany especially for the occasion.
Referring to the social and economic crisis the Lebanese population is enduring, President Larcher underlined that: “the Order of Malta, in this respect, plays, once again, in the history of Lebanon, a crucial role. It has been able to identify, with precision, the most sensitive areas of action in order to provide effective aid, producing immediate effects”.
In a heartfelt address, the President of the Lebanese association of the Order of Malta, Marwan Sehnaoui, affirmed that: “Lebanon is taken hostage, and too many Lebanese, in order to live and not to die, to stop trembling, to stop crying, to stop burying, have emigrated and are emigrating, emptying this martyred land of its living forces: its youth, its doctors, its nurses, its professors, its tourists, its lawyers, its engineers, and so many other good people…”
President Sehnaoui recalled the motto guiding the action of the Order of Malta in Lebanon: “I don’t ask you about your race, your colour, your language, or your religion… Tell me what your suffering is”, and then went on to explain the mission of Order in the country: “We undertake our action with a long-term vision based on governance, transparency and excellence, but above all with love, humility, respect for others, forgetting and giving of oneself as the driving force and values”.
The symposium was attended also by Thierry Beaumont-Beynac President of the French Association of the Order of Malta and by Clemens Mirbach-Harff General Secretary of the Malteser International, the worldwide relief agency of the Order of Malta.
The Order of Malta’s presence in Lebanon dates back to 1955 with the start of its diplomatic relations with the Republic of Lebanon. Today, it carries out a network of 40 different projects, including over ten health community centres and several mobile clinics, aiming to ensure individuals’ welfare, reaching more than 400,000 social medical acts.
