BEIRUT; “We have to rise again from the ruins”

ACN is helping to rebuild the sisters’ convent on the ninth floor of the hospital building.  

“Oh my God!” – exclaims Sister Nicolas Akiki, the director of the hospital. This is the first time she has been into this part of the hospital since it was devastated by the explosion of 4 August in the port of Beirut. Her hand goes to her heart and she struggles to hold back the tears as she gazes in silence at the wreckage. Her face reveals the anguish she is feeling at the sight of so many years of hard work and sacrifice, destroyed in the space of seven short seconds.

On the ninth floor of the building, the convent in which nine of the sisters normally live has also been badly damaged. One wall fell in on top of one of the sisters, wounding her arm. “But no one of them died. It was a miracle, because the windows were blown in, scattering broken glass everywhere, and the ceilings in some of the sisters’ rooms were also brought down. So that’s why, despite my sadness, I give thanks to God and Our Lady of the Rosary for having protected us”, Sister Nicolas explains, as she points to, and indeed almost caresses, the picture of Our Lady of the Rosary that is hanging in the hallway of the convent. Another of the sisters, Sister Arlette, relates how she had gone into the bathroom to get some medicine when she heard a voice saying “go out, go out” and that made her take a step backwards, just a moment before the bathroom mirror and the whole of the bathroom ceiling came crashing down.

The hospital is situated in the Gemmayzé suburb of Beirut, less than 500 metres from the port. Before the explosion it had 200 beds, plus some important and very modern medical facilities and operating theatres on its eighteen floors, nine of them underground and nine overground. But without doubt, the heart of the hospital, its hidden driving force, is the sisters themselves. “The hospital is not an end in itself, it is a means of helping our patients with all our energy and commitment to overcome some of the most difficult phases in their lives, times overshadowed by suffering, uncertainty and fear”, explains Sister Nicolas, the hospital director. All of the sisters combine their professional expertise in the various different hospital departments with their vocation of pastoral care and human spiritual concern for the patients and also for the hospital staff.

“Without them the hospital would be a different place; they are the strength behind our work”, says Maron Rabash, who has been working for twenty-eight years in the hospital. “This hospital, with its Christian ethos, is very necessary in Beirut. Many patients choose to come here because they know that they will be treated in an ethical manner”, explains this anaesthetist, still dressed in his scrubs.

The hospital, run by the Sisters of the Rosary, is situated in northeast Beirut in a densely populated quarter of the city. Before the blast it served many families affected by the economic crisis. “Sometimes they couldn’t pay, so I asked them to pay half the cost, which was still impossible for many, so I said whatever they could afford or to pay in instalments”, Sister Nicolas explains. “This hospital was the Pearl of Beirut, and our chapel is the Pearl of the hospital. That’s where everyone could go: the staff – 80 doctors and 92 nurses – the patients and their family members, whenever they wanted to gain new strength, seek counsel and regain hope.”

At the moment only two floors in the hospital are still able to function. They have managed to repair one of the lifts, so that they can take the patients upstairs to the operating theatre and for Covid tests.

The sisters are seeking funding from international institutions and governments so that they can rebuild the hospital. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has promised help to repair the sisters’ convent. Sister Nicolas has sent the following message to ACN’s benefactors: “I know that God is with us. I see it in the hands of so many people who have not forgotten us. With your help we will be able to continue our work and start over again. We have to rise again from the ruins. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary will guide us in our work.”