Children of God

Most off of Lebanon's private charities and social serivices -- from hospitals, to schools, to soup kitchens -- have some kind of sectarian affiliation, whether Christian, Sunni, Shia or Druze. The few exceptions are often local chapters of international organizations. But even these global NGO's have to pay attention to local sectarian sensibilities.

On Friday, I visited an SOS Children's Village in the Bekka valley. SOS Children's Villages International is a wonderful organization, founded in Austria after World War Two, that gives endangered and orphaned children in impoverished and war-torn areas new communal families and permanent homes in their residential "villages."

Such is the delicate balance of Lebanon's sectarian-based political system, that the country's religious authorities do what they can to make sure that no one switches the religious identities of children. For example, orphans can only be adopted by families who belong to the same sect.

Even though SOS children aren't put up for adoption, and even through the organization isn't involved with religious instruction, the four SOS Villages in Lebanon avoid any friction with local authorities and families by only housing children of the same religion under the same roof.

But sometimes sectarian issues are impossible to avoid. What happens when a child with no known family or religious history appears abandoned at the doorstep? In Lebanon you hardly exist without a religious identity, which determines many of your political and civil rights.

A little over a year ago, a newborn boy less that 48 hours-old was dropped off at the SOS village in the Bekka. Because the town were the boy was found is majority Sunni, Salman El Dirani, the village director, decided that the boy should be Sunni. Still, Dirani, who is also Sunni but married to a Christian woman, said that choosing the orphan's religion was less important than choosing his name. Because the boy appeared on the very day that a cease-fire ended the war between Israel and Lebanon, Dirani named him "Salam" which in Arabic means peace.

Peace be with you

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut