The association provides services in the following domains:
1- Financial aids
2- donations in kind
3- Health care
4- Education and recreation
5- Social
6- Orphans
7- Emergencies
8- Income generating programs
9- Donations
For each one of those domains their is a specialized team to study and assess the needs of the families. The working teams consist of a specialized staff and a great number of volunteers. Each team has two objectives, the first is educational and guidance while the second is field implementation and support.
1. Financial aids
Our financial aid consists on providing the basic financial need. Accordingto our social studies and experience, we found that the cause of most of the families poor conditions is due to low educational standard and knowledge and the tendency to look for luxury items instead of fulfilling basic family needs. For this reason we provide a small financial aid per month for each family and we cover in return many other needs (education, health care, cultural awareness, food supplies and household goods).
2. Donations in kind
These donations include the following:
- Food assistance according to a yearly plan (3 to 4 times per year)
These aids are immediately distributed to rescued families during natural disasters and displacement in war time.
3. Health care
The health team has two roles:
- Awareness and education for poor families who are ignorant of many basic health rules most of the time.
-Follow-up of medical cases from home to dispensary to hospital and follow up of any medical or legal procedures (papers for the National Social Security Fund, etc... ).
The association has several dispensaries were they can do follow-ups and medical transfer for patient and provision of medicines at very low cost. This could not have been done without the support of many doctors and pharmacies who offer special discounts for the families registered in our program. This procedure is a great indirect support of the association's yearly budget otherwise the association would become a medical provider for those families only. Medical revisions are about 11,250 per year (medicine, transfer, medical checkup, operations...).
4. Education and recreation
The education team makes a complete basic need assessment for the registered families. It provides school grants, stationary and books. Italso offers educational guidance programs and academic support whereby amember of the education team will voluntarily or for a low wage give private lessons for the children who need school assistance. The educational committee will do follow ups for the students from school tograduation and helps in providing them with jobs opportunities especially for vocational and technical graduates. The number of beneficiary students is 4395 orphans.
This committee has established several educational settings which are:
Martyr Mohammad Bjeiji seconday school (Mashgara, West Beqaa) , for 950 students from kindergarten to BaccII.
Moaysara Secondary school (Kisirwan) for 350 students.
Imam Khomeini Secondary School (Hadath, Beirut) for 1750 students. Imam Baker Secondary School (Rashkida, Batroun) for 160 students.
Ahl-Al-Beit Complex (Zkak Alblat – Beirut) for 900 students.
Imdad Vocational Training Center for Dropout Students (Hadath, Beirut). 150 students graduate yearly.
Four rehabilitation and care centers for handicapped children with special needs in Beirut, Nabatieh, Baalbek and Hermel encompassing 625 handicapped children and 120 students have difficult learning case.
Imam Khomeini permanent camp for sports, education and recreational activities in the suburbs of Baalbeck. It is a highly equipped camp that receives more than 3,000 students in spring and summer times. This camp is widely used for deprived and orphaned children. It is also used by other schools, associations, youth groups and family groups.
Theeducation group organizes trips abroad for brilliant students in their schools. These trips are sponsored by the Imam's Assistance Committee in Tehran or by local donors.
5. Social welfare and guidance programs
This program provides social and emotional support through guidance and recreational programs and activities. It also provides training sessionsin different fields (cultural, artistic, educational, vocational skills... ). The social awareness and training include all family members.
The social team made a social survey for 15.000 poor families located in the suburbs of Beirut, the South, Beqaa, North and Mount Lebanon. These families were distributed into 10 categories of impoverishment status according to the financial status, income generation and household level.
There is a social custody program to care for the families of prisoners and drug addicts. This program is looking after 400 individual from those families. It provides for them education, psychological and social support and all the needs of any family with no breadwinner.
6. Orphans
The association provides sponsors to support indigent orphans. The association is the link between the sponsor and these families. The roleof the association is to provide all what the family needs from food supply, clothing, shelter, education,... Besides these, it gives monthlysubsidies for orphans and school grants (for orphans with no sponsor). The most important part of this program is the human bond and relation between the association and the sponsor from one side and the orphans from the other side through routine home visits. These home visits are done by the director of the association, the staff and volunteers and most important of all the donor or sponsor. This will increase the levelof social responsibility and participation between different parts of the society and therefore enhance civic awareness. One of the major goals of the social welfare program is to prevent any family disintegration after the father's death, to keep the child in his home and provide him with all the needs to preserve as muchas possible his social integrity and emotional balance.
For the time being 4096 orphans profit from our social welfare program, 3335 have local or foreign sponsors or donors.
7. Emergencies
There is a stand by emergency team to directly act in the following cases:
a- Occasional passengers or travelers who cannot continue their journey either to their destination or back home due to loss of subsidies or forother disabling reasons.
b- Accidents and natural disasters
c- Displacement due to war activities mainly Israeli aggressions in the South and West Beqaa areas.
This team has special characteristic
d-It is always on full alert for any action to provide any equipment or material supplies in emergency cases with a full emotional and psychological support for the families in crisis.
e-highly qualified personnel with fine personal characteristics to overcome any contingency (endurance, tolerance, positive attitude,).
During the Israeli aggressions of July 1993 this team provided help, shelter and assistance for 9,136 families consisting of 45,519 members. During the aggressions of April 1996 it provided assistance for 8,393 families consisting of 42,529 members. It also provided emergency supplies for 298 displaced families (1,258 members) whose houses were destroyed. These donations consisted of refrigerators, gas cooker, house utensils, etc...
During the Israeli aggressions of July and August 2006 the team provided help and assistance for more than 128500 members.
8. Income generating programs
This program trains people with working abilities to become productive members of the society. The association has a specialized team to study such projects and provide convenient training sessions such as carpet weaving, sewing and other artistic crafts. The following is a list of some of the income generating projects:
- Bee keeping
- Cattle farming
- Carpet weaving
- Set up of a shop
- Jobs
This project is only concerned with families whose supporter is missing or died or is permanently handicapped and where the mother or one of the children has working abilities or skills to be developed.
The number of families registered in this program in the last 3 years is 632 families.
The most important event in this program is the yearly exhibition to show the products of these working families.
Social integration and participation is of utmost importance to implement any part of our work, program or service. This method increases social acceptance and lenience between neighbors and it enhances benevolent actions toward deprived families in a proper manner.
During the past years approximately 2324 houses were rebuilt or restored in rural areas. The association provided the principal materials and neighbors provided help as much as they can either by direct help or by the provision of missing materials or workers.
As a conclusion the association is trying its best to deliver as much as possible to the deprived section of the society but with shortage of oncoming resources the work is becoming harder. Despite this fact we tryto rely on all our human resources to at least provide these persons and families with emotional and social support through guidance and awareness campaigns.