About us

Different people, one mission

Our story

About our foundation

Together we are committed to our beautiful and challenging mission. Miriam in Lebanon. Jaap, Stan and Pieter as board from the Netherlands. We also have an Advisory Board which is formed by a number of enthusiastic people. We want to provide help to the ones that are in need.

Mirjams story

About Mirjam

Early 2022, I left for Lebanon to volunteer in the humanitarian sector. My plan to stay only for one year went overboard after a while. The distress and misery I saw all around me, touched me deeply. More and more I became intertwined with the story of Lebanon. That story is tragic, but also shows resilience.

I work as a counselor at a university in Beirut. This involves having conversations with students about the problems they face: financial stress, the threat of armed conflict in Lebanon, little perspective on the future, but also “normal” topics that concern young people in Europe. I love this work, because in seemingly hopeless situations light can suddenly break through. Hope always drives people on.

Slowly the idea grew of creating my own foundation to help more people. The theme of light and darkness often presented itself to me. Sometimes it feels like darkness prevails in Lebanon. The combination of a rough (war) history, traumatic events (such as the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020), the large refugee influx from Syria, the miserable conditions in Palestinian camps, political tensions and a severe economic recession make for an extremely challenging situation to live and work in.

Yet I believe that if we stubbornly choose to do good, the darkness will give way to hope, the light. This is what I dedicate myself to, together with my happy Labrador friend.

From the Netherlands a fantastic team surrounds me. In Lebanon I have built up a solid network and my Arabic is improving. This enables me to make contact and track down the right projects for the foundation. Afterwards, I can offer help in a very direct way, without large overhead costs.

So many times, I have seen a smile on people’s faces when help was offered. It really has an impact when people decide to donate.

I hope for more smiling people, more children that can go to school, more orphans that can sleep comfortably, more food and medication for people in areas of conflict.

I keep hoping, no matter what.
Hope brings life and light.

I hope I can ignite you and yours with enthusiasm for this mission.
People who, like me, believe in doing good.