The Vatican media interviewed Sister Waafa Rached, director of the institute, “where children learn what it means to be different and how to respect each other, not with weapons, but with their hearts and dialogue.” In the southern district of Beirut, despite the difficulties, the school continues to promote peaceful coexistence and respect between different religious denominations.

Below is the full interview by Giordano Contu:

Photo from Vatican News www.vaticannews.va

Despite the difficulties, the school run by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret in Baabda, a neighborhood south of Beirut, continues to promote peaceful coexistence and respect among different religious denominations. “Here at school, children learn what it means to be different and how to respect each other, not with weapons, but with their hearts and through dialogue,” Sister Wafaa Rached, director of the institute, told Vatican media.

The children have not returned to school. It is a disaster for around 200 families who have lost their homes and left Beirut. When Israeli bombing intensified in Lebanon at the beginning of the year, the school was evacuated because it was too close to the target area. This situation has caused anxiety and stress among students, teachers, and parents. Managers, teachers, and families have therefore launched an emergency project to help those most affected. This is how the school of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide Thouret in Baabda, a neighborhood south of Beirut adjacent to Dahiya, the Hezbollah stronghold targeted by air raids, is dealing with the consequences of the war. Despite the difficulties, the school continues to promote peaceful coexistence and respect between different religious denominations, a distinctive feature of Lebanon’s identity.

A neighborhood scarred by war

“We are located in the war zone. Before the conflict, we had just over 800 students, but now, due to the recent bombings affecting the southern suburbs of Beirut, right next to us, we have 721 students, aged between 3 and 17-18,” Sister Wafaa Rached, the school’s director, told Vatican media. The nun recounts that in recent months they were suddenly forced to evacuate the school. One morning, as the air strikes became more intense, they asked parents to come and take their children home. The nuns show us photos taken with their cell phones showing columns of smoke rising into the sky less than a kilometer away. We can only imagine the deafening noise of the explosions that terrified children, parents, teachers, and school administrators.
“We had resumed teaching in a hybrid mode,” the nun continues, ”with some students in class and others at home with online lessons. However, the conflict had created a lot of anxiety and stress. Many parents also had their homes destroyed by the bombings. At that point, we set up an emergency team to provide material support (collecting food from supermarkets) and psychological support (listening to people’s concerns over the phone and helping them share their fears). The social worker then took in the most affected families and began delivering food parcels, hygiene products, medicines, and school supplies.” Classes have been back in person for about a month. However, most families still need help to keep their children in school.

Helping those in need

The school cannot meet all needs, but the war crisis has also been an “opportunity” to strengthen a school project to raise awareness of poverty. It is about educating young people about the importance of helping those in need and in fragile situations. “Although most of our students come from poor backgrounds, it is interesting to note that it is often the students who lack everything who are the most active, generous, and committed to this project to help families affected by the war. Because the poor feel the suffering of the poor and immediately put themselves at the service of others,” explains Sister Rached. In short, just as school teaches young people the value of citizenship, educators have also used the phenomenon of war to shape the next generation of committed and responsible adults.
Unlike war, which divides people and polarizes them into two opposing camps, “no one in school ever says to another, ‘You are Muslim,’ ‘You are Christian. This is where we start to build the Lebanon of the future. Because here at school, children learn what it means to be different and how to respect each other, not with weapons, but with their hearts and through dialogue,” continues the headmistress. Of course, the war has also had a devastating effect on the school in Baabda, where half of the pupils are Muslim and half are Christian.

Beyond all differences of belief

“Some Muslim students were frustrated because their community was directly affected by Israel and they asked themselves, ‘Why us and not them?’ At school, we reassured them by saying clearly, ‘Whatever your religion, here we serve human beings. For us, you are people, not religious labels.’ We always address these issues together with the children and discuss them openly: ‘What is the difference? What does it mean to welcome others? What does it mean to love those who are different from me?’ We have initiated reflection processes to help young people express the violence and rejection they feel inside, and from there we have managed to bring each other closer together,” concludes Sister Rached.

Today more than ever, the Sisters of Charity school in Beirut focuses on educating students in human and evangelical values. Thanks to hope, which is the theme of the Holy Year, even war has been transformed into an opportunity for learning, as if it were one of the school meetings of the “philosophy club” where discussion, collaboration, and mutual understanding are encouraged. Because, as the principal told us: “If you don’t know him, he remains an enemy. If you know him, he can become a brother, even if he is different.”

Source: https://www.vaticannews.va/it/chiesa/news/2025-04/libano-scuole-educazione-dialogo.html