São Paulo – A delegation from the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) is in Brazil, seeking help to keep providing free treatment to children with cancer. The CCCL relies entirely on donations, and most has always been from Lebanon, but as the economic situation in the Arab country worsens and medicines are no longer subsided, the institution now relies on a higher volume of contribution from abroad.
“We came to Brazil, because we know it has a huge community of Lebanese,” CCCL Board of Trustees and Executive Committe chair Joseph Asseily told ANBA upon visiting on Friday (12) the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, which is engaging in the campaign.
Accompanied by CCCL international fundraising & events supervisor Saad Kurdi, ambassador Carla Jazzar, who’s chargée d’affaires from Lebanon to Brazil, and Lebanon’s general consul to São Paulo, Rudy El Azzi, Asseily was welcomed by ABCC president Osmar Chohfi.
CCCL has been in existence for over 20 years and has eight hospitals across Lebanon as a regional reference NGO providing access to treatment for children at no cost. Since it started, the center has treated over 5,000 children, according to Asseily, with a success rate at about 85-95%.
Asseily adds they don’t attend only children from Lebanon but from all over the Middle East. “We refuse no one,” he says. The center not only treats children but has painting, music and dance classes, too.
The CCCL has the largest fund raising in Lebanon after the Red Cross, having to raise USD 16 million a year to treat children. Originally, 80% of this fundraising came from Lebanon, and 20% came from other countries in the Middle East. As the Lebanese Minister of Health no longer subsides medicines, costs went up exponentially, and now the center has to raise 80% of its funds outside Lebanon.
“Small donations are as important as big donations,” Asseily told ANBA. When the center started, children in schools were giving money to help other children. Similarly, most of donations from the United States are at USD 50-100. “If you have big number of people who give you small amounts of money, it becomes a big amount,” he says.
Help from Brazil to Lebanon
Asseily says they are hoping for a good help from Brazilians. Donations can be from individuals and come through a range of means (see below). The CCCL is also interested in a list of medicines. Drug companies cand donate through the Lebanese embassy, he said. A fundraising event is also planed for November 28 in São Paulo.
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The ABCC will help the campaign by promoting it in Brazil and acting as a bridge between its partners and and the CCCL. The Lebanese delegation is in Brazil from earlier this week to half of the next, having a series of meetings with representatives from the public sector, companies, healthcare institutions, industry organizations, and entities associated to the Lebanese and Arab community.
Besides Chohfi, the meeting with the Lebanese delegation at the ABCC was attended by its secretary-general & CEO Tamer Mansour, board Alessandra Frisso and Arthur Jafet, institutional relations director Fernanda Baltazar, and ophthalmologist Dr. Robert Sami Nemer, who chaired Lebanese Brazilian Medical Association.
How to help:
Donate now
Attent the fundraiser
Donate medicines through the Lebanese Embassy in Brazil
via phone at +55 (61) 3443 5552 or email at [email protected]
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
