Dear friends,

I just wanted to say a few words to thank you for all the support and very generous donations that you made in support of (my marathon) and more importantly the psychiatric hospital of Deir El Salib. The amount of money that has been raised has completely blown my expectations and I am deeply grateful for every single donation. It really means the world to me and will make such a difference to the lives of my friends in Beirut.

Most importantly, I hope that we will be able to get the shower trolley to the home as soon as possible. At the moment, everything is at a standstill in Lebanon which means we are on hold for now until the situation develops and the banks reopen. Nevertheless, I can't imagine this situation going on for too much longer and I am optimistic that we will purchase the trolley in the coming weeks.

For those of you who are interested in finding out a bit more about the psychiatric hospital which I am supporting, I would be very happy to talk to you about it so please don't hesitate.

My experience in Lebanon over the last five years has been fantastic but it has also made me reflect a lot about how to be as effective as possible in supporting the homes. In fact, especially after spending some time in the homes this summer, I came to the conclusion that there is no end to the help that the homes need.  Things aren't going to change radically for the lives of people with serious mental disability living in these psychiatric hospitals in the foreseeable future. However, we can have a good go at changing that and we've done so thanks to your help. 

Most of all, small sums like your donation can go such a long way. In the last few years thanks exclusively to cycling and running, we have been able to start two different school projects, to finance the salary of two psycho-motricians and a physio-therapist, provide equipment and refurbish certain areas of the psychiatric hospitals. The homes lack really basic commodities like central heating in the winter or air conditioning in the summer (in Beirut!). Therefore a little support can have a huge direct impact. 

If this resonates with you please do get involved. There is no shortage of help that is required be it in the form of fundraisers for equipment and care, or the spreading of information about the homes or volunteers.

My time was 3:52:30 for those of you who are running-minded.
Thank you once again for everything.

Yours,

Auguste