For most people 2020 was the most globally disruptive and devastating year in their lives. Lockdowns, restrictions on movements, persecutions, corruption, high unemployment, etc. This was taking place all around the world. Think of the refugees that had everything taken from them due to wars and unrest in their countries.

The only thing that gives me hope for the human race is the support that SCM gets from people like you. I know that you are going through your own hardships, but at the same time understand what others are going through. Amidst the pandemic and the political and economic hardships our donors are still giving and helping. I am again asking for your help in Lebanon, which took a major blow on August 4th when warehouses that were storing abandoned, unstable chemicals blew up and devastated the port area of Beirut.

With your support we have been able to get vital medications, clothing, and medical equipment to the people. With a following of people with big hearts we have been able to supply over $50,000 worth of medical supplies just this year, but there is still so much more to do. Our fundraising goal for Lebanon over the next few weeks is to raise $35,000 to buy more medications and food and finish setting up the clinics we have planned.

We are also collecting items for a 40ft container that is going out at the end of March to Lebanon. We will be opening a free clinic in Saida for the people in need: giving them medicines, clothing, food vouchers and a place that they can come to learn how to support themselves with training classes. To do this we still need your help. We are trying to raise enough money to get more supplies to the people of Lebanon, including the Syrians and Palestinians that are living there and need help.

Our Regional Manager recently went to Lebanon to bring them medications not available in Lebanon and funds for food that we distributed in the Bekka Valley and in Saida.

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Today our team in Lebanon distributed food to the people of Saida/Sidon, just south of Beirut. The packages are supplies for a family of 5, containing beans, sugar, salt, tinned fish, cheese, pasta, and more.

Please don’t forget the containers we are trying to fill for Lebanon and Jordan that will hopefully go out later this month. You visit our Amazon Wish List at https://a.co/0Ps2qrt. You can also send or deliver donations to our office at 3806 Whitman Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98103. We need wheel chairs, socks and undergarments for all ages/sizes (new, please), school supplies and backpacks for the school supplies, blankets (also new, please), donations for solar lanterns and the Shoes That Grow.

Thank you!

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Dear SCM Friends:
2020 was a historic and trying year for all of us. I can’t thank you enough for all the support that you have given us during these tough times. I just want to say thank you to all of you, from your monetary support to the support of goods and donations and that you have given to us, thank you.
In 2020 I thought, at times, that we might not make it through the year. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were asking ourselves what we were going to do, what we would be able to do. Everyone was being told to stay home, work from home, go out only for essential things. So many people were suddenly out of work. It was hard to see then how we could get anything done except make phone calls and send emails!

We made a commitment to help keep local refugees in their homes and the lights on. As we all figured things out and the scientists learned more about the virus, we figured out ways to do things like a container loading and clothing drive to raise funds. You stepped up in a big way to keep our refugee rent assistance program going and also to help refugees in Jordan and Greece. Then the explosion at the Port of Beirut happened on August 4th, and we had to switch our focus from the Syrian refugees to the Lebanese people and others that are living in Lebanon. This threw everything into chaos as we scrambled to find a way to help.

But we just do not have the people power to keep this going. People are suffering and our donor base is also suffering from the lack of work and their own issues to keep their families together, safe and healthy. We had to change focus and do it fast. COVID-19 was spreading fast in the region and we had orders from the governments that we had to maintain quarantine, which means that we were not able to do distributions that were so needed in both Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. We needed to get special permissions, which we did, but at the same time we wanted to make sure that our volunteers were also protected.

This made it a very difficult time for SCM. But with the help of people like you are donors and supporters we were able to help and get medicines and other humanitarian supplies out to the right people and still keep our own volunteers safe.

Just a few days ago, an entire refugee camp in Lebanon was burned to the ground, leaving hundreds of people who already had so little, with nothing, once again. So we can’t let up now.

From the first days of lockdown in March, it was clear that SCMs work was going to be challenged by the circumstance, but it would be more important than ever to the people we serve. We adapted and grew to meet the obstacles the best we could. I’m so proud of our incredible team that kept going through it all.

SCM is grateful for you all for your support and for standing by the vulnerable people in our community and in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Greece. We wish you and your loved ones much health joy peace and hope 2021 will be a brighter year.

Thank you again for all your support and remember this is not over yet so please keep standing beside us. We need you more than ever.

Rita Zawaideh, Founder
SCM

SCM is committed to helping the people of Lebanon following the blast in Beirut in August 2020, and the continuing economic crisis the country is embroiled in. The tiny Mediterranean country is host to over a million Syrian refugees, thousands of Iraqi refugees, and nearly a half million Palestinian refugees, and has the highest per-capita ratio of refugees to citizens – a quarter of the people in Lebanon are refugees.

Lebanon has been suffering an economic collapse over the last year and a half, with its banking system being called a Ponzi scheme and collapsing, 45% of the population living in poverty, defaulting on international loans and a credit rating akin to Venezuela’s (very bad). Gulf countries have provided some aid but that is beginning to dry up. There are rolling blackouts or just no electricity at all, especially away from the urban center of Beirut.

To make matters worse, Lebanon could get some of its needed power supply from neighboring Syria but the US recently enacted the Caesar Act that sanctions any person, business, or country doing business with the Al-Assad regime, and Lebanon fears buying electricity would result in the US placing sanctions on Lebanon, something the ravaged country could hardly survive. So for now, in the middle of winter, people are living without electricity. This is particularly bad in the mountains and Bekka Valley. It’s cold and snowy, the nights are longer, and people can’t really do anything but hunker down and stay warm in their homes (which could be a tent, a temporary building, or a cold concrete brick structure!)

Another looming crisis for Lebanon is the fight over the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) program that provides food and other types of assistance to the Palestinian refugees. Israel and the UAE are working to get it shut down, and the program, which has been running in the red due to budget shortfalls and non-payment of countries like the US, is in dire financial stress.

While SCM is not a big organization, we are able to help 100’s of families with your support. We are providing LuminAID solar lanterns and phone chargers, food, and medicines but we need to get them more. The need is so great that anything we do is a drop in the bucket compared to what the people need. We provide food because the UN food programs have been cut way back. We provide blankets and solar lanterns because no one else is doing that in certain areas. We provide medications to help people who have seen the prescription drugs they need skyrocket in price or disappear off the pharmacy shelves all together.

Please make an end of the year, tax deductible donation to help us continue our work in Lebanon. Your donations go directly to help the people of Lebanon. https://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/donate/

The last of the medications were delivered in Lebanon, destined for cancer patients who are in dire need of these drugs. Thanks to Medglobal and SCM donors we procured $25,000 in medications for the people of Lebanon. Our local representative has coordinated the distribution of the medications to various clinics in the hardest hit areas of Beirut and also out of the city in rural areas suffering from the economic collapse of the country.

Please continue to support SCM so we can keep doing work like this to help the people of the Middle East, whether they are refugees fleeing violence or suffering under an economic collapse in their country. They need our help!

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