{"id":665151,"date":"2026-11-03T02:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665151\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T02:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:14:13","slug":"finding-ways-to-fight-loneliness-among-the-elderly-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665151\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding ways to fight loneliness among the elderly in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a dimly lit basement in Beirut, Elie Zamlouti sits surrounded by reminders of a different life. Liquor bottles line a shelf. Large photographs of his children hang on the walls.<\/p>\n

Zamlouti points to one of the pictures. It\u2019s of him with his son, who is wearing a military uniform on graduation day.<\/p>\n

He smiles as he talks about the past. But life looks very different now. Zamlouti\u2019s legs are badly swollen. And he rarely goes out anymore.<\/p>\n

He is among many people in Lebanon for whom life has been upended by war and an ongoing economic crisis. The ordeals have scattered families across the country, leaving many older people in society alone and isolated. Now, some groups are trying to address the issue.<\/p>\n

\"HillsideView Image: AP26254392499144-1024×683.jpg<\/p>\n

Houses of Mansouri village are seen destroyed by Israeli-controlled detonation, as seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Sept. 11, 2026.Hussein Malla\/AP<\/p>\n

Things began to unravel for Zamlouti during Lebanon\u2019s financial collapse. He said he lost his savings, started drinking more, and gradually withdrew from the world around him.<\/p>\n

His health deteriorated. He listed his illnesses: diabetes, high blood pressure and vascular disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be so much happier,\u201d he reminisced.<\/p>\n

These days, Zamlouti relies on a local humanitarian organization for food. They also help him with cleaning his apartment from time to time.<\/p>\n

Zamlouti is lucky to get this kind of support, because in Lebanon, many older people struggling with isolation, poverty and declining health are often without the family support they once relied on.<\/p>\n

\"AView Image: AP21174656083331-1024×683.jpg<\/p>\n

A homeless Lebanese woman and her cat sleep on a bench as the sun rises over the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut, Lebanon, June 18, 2021. With virtually no national welfare system, Lebanon\u2019s elderly are left to fend for themselves amid their country\u2019s economic turmoil.Hassan Ammar\/AP\/File photo<\/p>\n

The United Nations estimates<\/a> that for every eight or nine people living in Lebanon, one Lebanese person lives abroad.<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Isabelle Mecattaf<\/a> wanted to capture the effects of the Lebanese exodus.<\/p>\n

She grew up in Beirut, but left Lebanon when she was 18. Her brother left, too. And then her younger sister prepared to leave.<\/p>\n

Watching her parents face an increasingly empty house inspired Mecattaf to make a short film called \u201cBeity<\/a>,\u201d Arabic for \u201cmy home.\u201d It\u2019s about a mother waiting for her daughter to return from abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of want them to go, but then you also resent them for it because then they abandon you,\u201d Mecattaf said about the parents, \u201cand I really wanted to look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mecattaf grew up hearing that if she studied hard and worked hard, she could leave Lebanon. Leaving was the reward. But she began to wonder what that success meant for the parents, including her own, who were left behind.<\/p>\n

The emotions aren\u2019t always straightforward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI receive calls sometimes, especially when things are bad. It\u2019s just like, \u2018Never come back. I\u2019m so glad you\u2019re gone.\u2019 And then the next day it\u2019s like, \u2018Please come back. I miss you so much. I can\u2019t live without you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mecattaf, the loneliness from migration goes both ways. Sometimes when she visits Lebanon, she feels like an outsider, she said. When she\u2019s back in New York, she doesn\u2019t feel American enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something just really sad and lonely about it on both ends, I think,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But for some older Lebanese, being left behind is more than an emotional burden. It can mean having no one to take them to the doctor, no one to help with groceries, or simply no one to talk to.<\/p>\n

Government support for the elderly in Lebanon is largely nonexistent, said Carole Chahine, project coordinator for Amel Association<\/a>, one of the organizations stepping in to fill the gaps left by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the retirement plan isn\u2019t present for the older people,\u201d she said, and public hospitals lack the capacity to take in older people for long-term care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the organizations within Lebanon are playing the role of the government,\u201d Chahine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ElderlyView Image: AP06080109462-1024×693.jpg<\/p>\n

In this Aug. 1, 2006, file photo, an elderly villager carries some belongings as she walks through the rubble after spending more than a week in a shelter in the southern village of Aitaroun, Lebanon, the site of a bloody weeklong siege of Hezbollah fighters by Israeli forces.Hussein Malla\/AP\/File photo<\/p>\n

The Amel team helps hundreds of people in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. They go door to door to find people who might need help. They ask shopkeepers and neighbors if they know someone who\u2019s alone, and once they find them, they don\u2019t just drop off supplies.<\/p>\n

They sit down, listen, and even teach them new skills, such as medication management, stress management, using a blood pressure monitor and checking their blood sugar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese small steps help them get a bit stronger and more resilient,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

If they need it, Amel members also teach them how to use their phones, so they can stay in touch with family overseas.<\/p>\n

Amel also holds regular community events. A recent one was called \u201cOlder People\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were activities like soap and candle making, workshops on stretching and stress management.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an older person who has been homebound for more than 10 years,\u201d Chahine said, \u201cand on \u2018Older People Day,\u2019 we were able to have a wheelchair and the medical team present to take her out of her house and join us, which was one of our biggest successes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chahine added that Lebanon\u2019s needs far exceed what the organization can provide. They rely on private donations, and funding is limited. That means many older people remain without support.<\/p>\n

In the absence of institutional support, those who can are finding their own ways to stay connected to their communities as they age.<\/p>\n

\"RiotView Image: AP19272392457433-1024×683.jpg<\/p>\n

In this Sept. 29, 2019 file photo, Lebanese anti-government protesters clash with riot police as they try to cross to the government house in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, during a demonstration to protest a worsening economic crisis.Bilal Hussein\/AP\/File photo<\/p>\n

Seventy-nine-year-old Ibrahim Srour spent much of his adult life in the United States, teaching at a university in California. But as he grew older, he began to worry about ending up alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to live in a compound where most of the people there were retired people,\u201d he said, \u201cand I would hear from time to time that someone died and nobody noticed. So, I felt I [didn\u2019t] want this to happen to me, so let me go back home. At least at home I have a lot of people around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Srour returned to Lebanon despite all of its challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like salmon, you know, salmon fish. They like to die where they were born,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Most of Srour\u2019s old friends and family left Lebanon. So when he returned about a decade ago, he began rebuilding a new community for himself.<\/p>\n

Today, he said he has friends ranging from seven to 77. He goes to movies and concerts. He hosts dinner parties at his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you keep your curiosity, you stay young. The minute you lose your curiosity, you get old. So, I\u2019m trying to keep my curiosity alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Srour can\u2019t change the fact that so many people have left, and continue to leave his country,\u201d he said, but he can keep meeting people, making plans and opening up his home.<\/p>\n

This, for him, is a way to fill some of the empty spaces in his life. And to make new memories with the people around him for as long as he can.<\/p>\n

This story was reported with support from the Pulitzer Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a dimly lit basement in Beirut, Elie Zamlouti sits surrounded by reminders of a different life. Liquor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-665151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}