How he changes the world: Elias Khalil feels himself lucky: he still has a job despite the crisis, and his job makes him feel useful: he works for Beit el BARAKA NGO which helps old Lebanese people in need regain their dignity. Here is his story: 

“I feel like 2020 was “skipped”, it hurts to think that I “lost” so much time this year. Before the thawra, even if things were hard, we had options : to look for a job, to emigrate. Ok, maybe these were bad options, but at least they existed. Today with the Covid19, we don’t have any options left.

At the same time, I feel super grateful to have a job and to be able to provide for myself. I know that not many of us can do that today: 50 % of the population currently lives below the poverty level.

When the Thawra started, I had just launched my business in operations consulting. I had a few clients, among them Lebanese NGO Beit el BARAKA. Their mission is to “ensure a sense of dignity to hard-working citizens once they retire, by assisting them in their struggle with the increasing cost of living.” A lot of them don’t have access to social security or pensions. Beit el BARAKA provides them with food through their free supermarket in Karm el Zeitoun and through food boxes, they help them get decent housing, and they give them access to medical care.

I started losing my clients with the Thawra; in parallel, the needs at Beit el BARAKA were growing. They asked me to work with them full time, as head of operations. Today, when I see the smile on the faces of the people I help on a daily basis, I feel the change, and I know that I am exactly where I need to be at the moment.

I don’t know what will happen in the future. There is a huge grey area when I think about it. The only thing I can do now is focus on my mission at Beit el BARAKA. We have a lot of projects to help the most vulnerable communities: for example in cooperation with 95 Lebanese NGOs, we will distribute 50,000 food boxes all around Lebanon. The number of people in need is growing, we have a lot of work to do! ”

Elias Khalil is the head of operations at Beit el BARAKA NGO. If you want to help, you can volunteer, give food or money.
Contact:  https://beitelbaraka.org/