Pearl visits Lebanon

In November the chairwoman of Pearl visited Lebanon. During this visit there was in the southern districts of Beirut an expert meeting about the redevelopment which called 'Lebanon Unbuilt'. She also visited several villages in the south of Lebanon. She also had a meeting with the board of an orphanage in the village of Tibnin and with the town counsel of the village Tayr Debba.Lebanon Unbuilt: Expert meeting about the redevelopment of Lebanon

Together with Lebanese architects, Archis, Partizan Publik and Pearl organised an expert meeting about the redevelopment of Lebanon, called 'Lebanon Unbuilt'. In three days an international party of fifty (landscape)architects, urban developers, visual artists, designers, scientists and writers visited several in South-Beirut and South-Lebanon. They met the inhabitants who want to look ahead and nevertheless feel the need to share their experiences during the war. The extent of the devastation was intimidating. The positive attitude of the people involved was inspiring and hopeful. They were all determined to distil the surplus value from the different approaches and turn this into intelligent and creative solutions. 'Lebanon Unbuilt' was a success. The participants mapped out the basic problems, formulated possible solutions and will use these in a follow up.

Keep up with the developments on: www.archis.org/unbuilt/

The orphanage in Tibnin

Pearl’s chairwoman als had a meeting with the board of the orphanage in Tibnin, which was founden with the aid of Dutch Unifil soldiers in 1980. Last summer the orphanage was not damaged by the war. Four new orphan girl came to live in the orphanage.
The orphanage can accommodate a maximum of 200 girls. At the moment there is hardly money enough to support the 60 girls that live there now. New donations are therefore always welcome, among other things, in order to replace an industrial washing machine which broke down.
The girls, aged between 3 and 17, come from all over Lebanon. The girls can stay here as long as is needed, mostly until their education is completed.

In order to support the orphanage Pearl has joint forces with the Foundation Friends of South Lebanon.
 

Tayr Debba

Tayr Debba is a village with approximately 6.000 inhabitants, in the south of Lebanon, near the border of Israel. Last summer the village was heavily struck. Many inhabitants fled from the village. During the visit of Pearl’s chairwoman the mayor gave a tour of the village, to indicate the places to which Pearl could contribute to village life according to its aim: improving spaces which are a benefit to all villagers, cultural facilities, supporting the children and starting a dialogue with the Netherlands. It was agreed that the priorities are a playground with a park and a computer room in which children from Tayr Debba can have lessons. The aim is to set up the latter project in cooperation with a village or a district in the Netherlands and to launch a website which is kept up by both children from Tayr Debba and the Netherlands.The mayor concluded the visit by stating that he would like to establish a closer relation with Dutch contributors. He would like to project a different image of South Lebanon: an area with simple-hearted people who want to lead their lives peacefully and quietly and above all are striving for an improvement if their living conditions without fear of new devastations.