Before the First Bell Rang, LIFE Showed Up and Gave Back-to-School Support to 500 Orphans in Lebanon
- ajoyce140
- Jan 8
- 2 min read
The start of a school year can arrive with a familiar dread: not about exams, but about supplies. For families living with tight income and rising costs, the shopping list becomes stressful. For orphaned children especially, the pressure is more severe: the same classroom expectations, with fewer buffers at home.
Life for Relief and Development (LIFE) executed a back-to-school distribution carried out in September 2025 across Tripoli, Akkar, and Tyr in Lebanon. LIFE provided 500 school bags, prepared to match children’s grade levels, after teachers helped identify what each level required. Each kit included core learning materials, copybooks for Arabic and English, pencils and pens, a ruler, pencil case, eraser, sharpener, crayons, and a coloring book, plus items that help children function day to day at school, like a durable water bottle. Some kits also included grade-appropriate tools like a calculator (for grades 9 and 10) and a mathematical geometry set. The distribution also explicitly included children with disabilities, so access to supplies did not depend on mobility, circumstance, or background.
This project reached 500 orphaned children in Tripoli, Akkar, and Tyr (241 girls and 259 boys), concentrating support where vulnerability is dense and choices are hardest. The distribution was heavily centered in Tripoli (290 children) and Akkar (186 children), with additional support in Tyr (24 children), reflecting where the need was most concentrated.
Samar Abed Allah, a sixth grader in Tripoli, described the kit in plain, unmistakable relief: she loved the bag, said the stationery was exactly what she needed. She thanked LIFE for helping her start school with confidence.
Retaj, 9, thanked LIFE for the school bag and the variety of stationery, saying it arrived at the right time, just before the school year began.
In places where hardship compresses childhood, a school kit can be more than supplies: it can be a vote of confidence. It tells a child, “You still belong in the classroom.” LIFE’s supporters made that message tangible for 500 children, and the impact will keep unfolding in the coming year: more consistent attendance, less stress at home, and the steady rebuilding of normal life one school day at a time.
