Beit el Baraka, (registered under decree 2277) offers a program that assists a large number of Lebanese families in strong financial distress, and retirees who often suffer from seclusion and lack of access to preventive and contributive health care.
-Lebanon is the sole country in the MENA region that does not offer social security for retirees in the private sector, and has the highest percentage of older adults who continue to work beyond the age of 65.
-Public pension expenditure for Lebanon presently stands at 3% of GDP, half the average 6% of GDP level in other emerging markets.
-Public sector’s retirees lose all benefits after retirement, when they need them the most. They receive a one-time lump-sum retirement payment and lose their health coverage benefits. Coverage of the pension system is inadequate, with a big disparity between the public and private schemes. On the other hand, free labor workers get no pension whatsoever, forcing this category of older citizens to keep working until they pass away.
– Lebanon is experiencing a very fast demographic shift that implies a rapidly ageing population due to low fertility rates, high life expectancy, and very high out-migration rates.

Due to the lack of measures addressing this alarming situation, my husband Christian and I felt the dire need to create Beit el Baraka. With a core mission to restore a sense of dignity to hard-working Lebanese citizens and assist them in their struggle with an increasing cost of living, our support program was designed to secure their basic needs in food, decent housing, and medical support.