Our Mission
The Lebanese Center for Palliative Care – Balsam is a nongovernmental organization founded in 2010 and registered in the Lebanese Ministry of Interior in March 2011. Balsam aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of people facing life-threatening illness through patient care, advocacy, capacity building, and research. Balsam is committed to developing palliative care in Lebanon to ensure its integration into our healthcare system.
OurValues
We believe in:
Providing the best quality of life for as long as life lasts.
Respecting our patients’ wishes, values, and beliefs.
Supporting life; not hastening death.
We believe that:
No one should live in pain.
No one should live in fear.
No one should die feeling alone.
Everyone deserves a dignified death.
OurTeam
Janane Hanna
Rebecca el-Asmar
joined Balsam as one of its founding team members in 2010. She holds a Master’s degree in Nursing from the American University of Beirut and has received training in oncology and palliative care at Johns Hopkins Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Institute in addition to training at the Al-Malath Foundation in Amman, Jordan in 2010 and at St. Christopher’s Hospice, London in 2013. In 2011, she received her certification in Advanced Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist (AOCNS) from the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation. After 8 years as an oncology nurse at AUBMC, she was promoted to the role of Adult Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at AUBMC in 2012. In 2016, she was appointed Academic Associate at the AUB Hariri School of Nursing. Rebecca strongly believes in Balsam’s mission to support patients in need of palliative care. She has cared for cancer patients at various stages of their disease and works to support them and their families throughout. She believes that caring for patients with cancer requires not only skill, but also passion and patience. She continuously works on developing her skills and well as updating and sharing her knowledge on palliative care. She participates in training physicians and nurses and has presented in several national and international conferences on the topics of oncology and palliative care..
Dania Ghaziri
joined the Balsam team in 2011 as a volunteer Pharmacist. Dania has worked as a clinical pharmacist at the Pharmacy Department at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) since 1998. She holds a doctorate in clinical pharmacy (Pharm D). She is board certified in Pharmacotherapy (BCPS), ASHP certified in Critical Care and board certified in critical Care (BCCCP). She is currently the Adult Team Leader and the Critical Care pharmacist in AUBMC. Dania is committed to excellence in patient care and works closely with medical teams to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate and safest medications for their medical conditions. She spends most of her time at AUBMC in the ICU where she often deals with patients as candidates for palliative care. Dania is inspired by the work of Balsam and by its mission and is committed to supporting Balsam by providing her clinical expertise.
Hiba Makke
joined the Balsam team in 2013 as a social worker. She has a Bachelor’s degree in social work from the Lebanese University and a Master’s degree in social work from Howard University in Washington, DC. She trained in a variety of social and health institutions in Lebanon as well as at Georgetown University Hospital. Since joining Balsam, she has continued to work actively to expand her knowledge and skills in palliative care. In 2015 she has clinical exposures with the Palliative Care Social Workers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Hiba joined Balsam’s team because she believes that it is essential for patients and their families to receive psychosocial support along with medical support. She helps patients and caregivers discuss difficult issues and release powerful emotions by providing support and counseling. In addition, she assists and connects Balsam patients to available community resources and follows up with bereaved families. For Hiba, making a difference in the lives of patients and families is a privilege.
Alia el Tabsh
joined the Balsam team in 2014. Alia holds a Master’s degree in Nursing Administration from the American University of Beirut (AUB). Before joining Balsam, Alia worked for 6 years at the Makassed General Hospital as Nurse Manager of the medical surgical units. Prior to that, Alia worked as a registered nurse at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) and at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. During her 12 years at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Alia service as the Head Nurse of the Medical Oncology Solid Tumor Unit. Her work included the provision of palliative care to patients and their families as well as training and supporting her nursing staff to provide such care. Alia’s clinical experience has allowed her to appreciate the impact of palliative care and made her a passionate advocate. She believes in the challenge and reward of helping patients live well no matter the status of their underlying disease.
Chadia Fayad
joined Balsam as a full-time palliative care nurse in June 2015. Chadia came to Balsam with five years of experience as a private palliative care nurse in the UAE. When she returned to Lebanon she was happy to be able to continue her palliative care work with Balsam. Chadia has learned a great deal through her clinical experience at Balsam, and she continues to expand her knowledge base by enrolling in courses in basic and advanced palliative care. She is also working to spread the palliative care approach by training nurses and other health providers. She finds her work with Balsam extremely rewarding and enjoys being a part of a dedicated multidisciplinary team. In fact, working with the team was one of the main reasons she was attracted to Balsam. Chadia believes that being part of Balsam made her a better person on both the professional and personal levels. Having Chadia on board has allowed Balsam to increase its capacity significantly.
Aline Zakhem
joined the Balsam team in 2015 as a consultant physician to supervise and support nurses in their work. Aline is a specialist in Infectious Diseases with subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases of Immunocompromised Patients from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Zakhem is a full time Faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center since 2017. Her interest in Balsam comes from her experience with seriously ill patients and her commitment to improving their quality of life. With her excellent clinical skills and caring approach with patients and families, Dr. Zakhem’s expertise is a key element for the Balsam team .
Karim Farah
joined the Balsam team in 2015 as a part-time physician. He received his MD from the American University of Beirut. He later completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). Karim works as a specialist in Pulmonary and Critical Care in the intensive care units at Bellevue Medical Center (BMC), Bekhazi Medical Group (Khoury Hospital) and in the Emergency Department at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The palliative approach comes naturally to Dr. Farah and his background in Pulmonary Medicine is invaluable to Balsam’s patients and the Balsam team. Karim joined the aubmc internal medicine department as part of palliative care team as of Nov 2019.
Roula Alameddine Doughan
Roula holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management and has worked in both the public and private sectors. She initially joined Balsam in November 2015 part-time as Human Resources and Outreach Coordinator. She quickly started taking on more tasks and soon started assuming the role of Operations Manager. As Balsam’s Operation Manager, Roula’s main focus is on supporting the necessary expansion of Balsam. This includes managing projects, improving workflow and the work environment, ensuring adequate staffing, and planning fundraising events to ensure Balsam’s sustainability. Most importantly, she works actively on maintaining the welfare of members of the Balsam team who she believes are its most valuable assets.
Joe el Khoury
joined the Balsam team in July 2017. After he graduated from Saint Joseph University’s medical school, he specialized in Family Medicine at Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut, and completed his specialty training in Palliative Care between USA and France. Joe gathered experience in some of the most prestigious hospitals in the USA like the Ohiohealth network as an international scholar, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus for a pediatric palliative care observership and the Mayo Clinic in Florida for an extended preceptorship and research in palliative care program. Joe has a diploma in Palliative Care from the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in Lyon, France. He also completed a training in Pediatric palliative care through the Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care Pediatrics program with Children’s Minnesota in 2019, and serves as faculty in some of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) palliative care workshops around the world.
He was drawn to Palliative Care after he discovered how powerful and underused the available tools are and how much they can change the experience of the disease and its impact on the whole family.
He is particularly interested in providing care and support not only to the patients but also to their families who live through the different stages of their loved ones’ illness and have to deal with loss and grief. He strongly believes in the importance of integrating palliative care in the health systems of Lebanon and the region. He is committed to developing palliative care both in hospital and home settings.
Rana Yamout
joined Balsam in May 2018. After she earned her medical degree from Saint Joseph University (USJ) in June 2009 and started her residency in Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Hotel Dieu de France (HDF) hospital in Beirut and went on to complete it in Paris, France. While in France, she completed a fellowship in chronic pain which triggered her interest in caring for the seriously ill. She therefore went on to pursue a Masters of Research in Palliative Medicine at the University of Paris Descartes and completed further training in pain management and palliative care at Gustave Roussy Institute and Bichat hospital. She was also a visiting fellow in pain management and palliative care at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey in September 2015.
Since returning to Lebanon in November 2015, she established a palliative care consultation service at Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC) where she worked as an anesthesiologist. She also contributed to the establishment and operationalization of the palliative care unit at Hotel-Dieu de France hospital in 2017. Dr. Yamout has been on faculty at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) since June 2018 as the acting director of the palliative and supportive care team with an appointment in the Department of Anesthesiology where she contributes to both the pain service and anesthesiology services.
Maya Alam
joined the Balsam team in May 2018 as Executive Assistant. Maya holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources (HR) from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and has 8 years of experience in the HR field. Her previous work experience included ensuring quality practices in the SABIS School Network as well as assuming the role of HR Leader for Consulting Staff at Deloitte. Maya also spent three years at Bank Audi; where she was responsible for developing Organizational Policies and Procedures as well as acting as an Employee Relations Officer for a number of employees. This is Maya’s first experience in an NGO, and it was very quick for Maya to realize that the sense of gratification and reward achieved from being a part of Balsam is very different from anything she experienced before.
Batoul Haidar
joined the Balsam team in 2020 as a part time nurse. Batoul is a certified registered nurse with 5 years of experience at AUBMC. She is a health care professional who provides quality care to a wide variety of patients. Batoul has an extensive knowledge of health care services and is highly experienced in the delivery of individual care plans. She has received training in pain management and palliative care. Batoul is compassionate and friendly whilst giving the highest standards of palliative care. Majoring in nursing, she has gained plenty of skills including but not limited to nursing assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, intervention, evaluation, and coordination of care for patients across the health care continuum. For Batoul, helping in providing the best she can for a better quality of life for patients and their families is an honor.
Abeer Fleifel
joined Balsam in 2023 as a part time nurse for adult and pediatric patients. She is a certified registered nurse with five years of experience in the Hematology-Oncology Nursing Care Unit and the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at AUBMC. Abeer is a former registered nurse at Milestones Child Development Center, and a former school nurse at Wellspring Community School. Throughout her career, Abeer has gained work experience in assessment and management of the physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social needs of patients. Abeer believes that joining Balsam will further add to her knowledge and experience as well as allow her to provide the best quality of life for patients and their family members.
OurBoard
Salah Zeineldine
Dr. Zeineldine is a physician specialized in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and is President of Balsam. He is on faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and serves as the Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the Ain WaZein Hospital in the Shouf .
Dr. Zeineldine is the Past President of the Lebanese Pulmonary Society. He is a strong supporter and proponent of palliative care, and is currently President of the Lebanese Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Sami Khouri
Mr. Khouri is an entrepreneur and serves as board member and shareholder of several companies in the Middle East. He supports a number of initiatives that contribute to advancement and growth in the region including organizations working in health, education, the arts, and business such as Endeavor Lebanon, and Ruwwad Al Tanmeya.
Hibah Osman
Hibah Osman is a senior palliative care physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Her work focuses on advocacy and program development in LMICs and adaption palliative care to local context. She is a faculty affiliate in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS and is part of the core team involved in building the departments Program in Global Palliative Care.
Her activities to date have focused on the development of palliative care in Lebanon and the Middle East. She is a member of the Palliative Care Regional Expert Network at WHO EMRO – an advisory group which she helped establish that has been working on a roadmap for the development of palliative care in the region since 2019. She served as guest editor for the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal’s special issue on palliative care published in 2022.
She is founder of Balsam – the Lebanese Center for Palliative Care and the founding director of the Palliative and Supportive Care Program at the American University of Beirut Medical Center’s Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute. She is lead author of the Atlas of Palliative Care in the Easter Mediterranean Region and co-chaired committee that developed ASCOs palliative care resource-stratified guideline.
Dr. Osman has been a member of IAHPC since 2009 and has served on the Board of Directors since 2019. She is a member of the advisory groups for the Advocacy Program as well as the Atlantes Group project on assessing Africa and global palliative care development.
Hibah enjoys knitting, yoga and hiking and spending time with her 3 children.
Imad Taher
Mr. Taher is CEO of BEAM International – a company that is involved in construction, oil and gas services, and trade in the Middle East and Africa. He is a graduate of MIT with an MSC in Civil Engineering. He is involved in and supports a number of educational and humanitarian activities. In addition to serving on the Board of Balsam, he is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of International College and he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon (CCCL).
Huda Zurayk
Dr. Zurayk is a biostatistician whose main research interest is women’s health. Since 1974, she served as Professor in the Department of Population and Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) of the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she also served as FHS Dean from 1998 to 2008, until her retirement in June 2015. Since her retirement, she continues to contribute to her community by serving on the boards or steering committees of several organizations including Al Ahliah School, the Reproductive Health Working Group, the Lancet Palestinian Health Association, and the Institute of Palestine Studies. Her personal experience has led her to become a strong advocate of palliative care and a supporter of its development in Lebanon.
OurStory
Balsam’s inspiration
Behind every great organization is a powerful story. This is especially the case with Balsam, the Lebanese Center for Palliative Care. In 2007, Dr. Hibah Osman, then a family physician at the Department of Family Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), took on the care of Mrs. Najla Cortas Zurayk when she was diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Osman followed protocol and referred Mrs. Zurayk to the relevant medical specialists. Over the course of the following year, however, Mrs. Zurayk and her family faced a stressful ordeal trying to manage the associated complications with her illness. Physicians were busy and rushed, and Mrs. Zurayk was wheeled from one operation to the next with little advance notice or explanation. For a woman in her mid-90s, this experience was distressful for her and for her family who had nowhere to turn for help.
About a year later, Dr. Osman happened to meet Mrs. Zurayk’s daughter, Huda, who was then Dean of AUB’s Faculty of Heath Sciences and an old family friend. Huda was completely overwhelmed with the complications of her mother’s illness including surgery, emergency room visits, radiation therapy, and fielding multiple doctors’ opinions. Immediately, Dr. Osman took on the role as the go-between; she coordinated with Mrs. Zurayk’s physicians to arrange meetings with them and the family. At the same time, Dr. Osman talked with Mrs. Zurayk to include her in the decisions regarding the kind of care she wanted. What struck Huda was Dr. Osman’s holistic approach, she connected with the person, and managed the symptoms of the disease, rather than just the disease itself. However, Dr. Osman didn’t possess all the tools necessary to treat Mrs. Zurayk’s symptoms at home and when complications arose, Mrs. Zurayk would be subjected to yet another stressful visit to the hospital. While Dr. Osman was familiar with hospice care from her US-based training, this option was not available in Lebanon and the concept of palliative care was still an unknown.
After a particularly lengthy hospital stay, Mrs. Zurayk made it clear to Dr. Osman that she wanted to leave the hospital and go home. At that critical phase in her illness, Dr. Osman hesitated. But Mrs. Zurayk insisted and her wishes were respected. A few days later, Dr. Osman travelled to the US to attend a Family Medicine conference, where she found herself drawn to all sessions related to what she came to know was palliative care. In the middle of the conference, on May 1st 2008, Dr. Osman learned that Mrs. Zurayk had passed away at home in Beirut. Though Dr. Osman was hit hard by the loss of Mrs. Zurayk, she took solace in and gained strength from the knowledge that she had helped make Mrs. Zurayk comfortable in the last months of her life and that she had given invaluable support, guidance, and relief to Mrs. Zurayk’s family. Ultimately, this experience changed the course of Dr. Osman’s career. In August 2009, she left her position as family physician at AUBMC, set up her own private practice, and found her true calling in palliative care.
Balsam’s beginnings and growth
Backed with seed money from a generous donor, Dr. Osman paired up with like-minded people to found Sanad, the first palliative care NGO in Lebanon. Like many new experiences, at first things were touch and go, and soon after a difference in vision led Dr. Osman to leave Sanad and establish Balsam. Founded in the September 2010 and formally registered in March 2011, Balsam launched out on its own with a mission to relieve the suffering and improve the quality of life of patients facing life-threatening illnesses through patient care, advocacy, capacity building, and research.
Janane Hanna and Rebecca El-Asmar, award-winning palliative care trained nurses, joined Dr. Osman to form Balsam’s small team in 2010. From their first patient that fall, things moved very quickly. Indeed, since the end of 2016, Balsam has cared for over 633 patients. Between 2014 and 2016, patient enrollment numbers increased from 98 in 2014, to 159 in 2015, to 215 in 2016. Moreover, physicians increasingly recognized the benefit of palliative care for their patients such that referrals to Balsam came from only 8 different physicians in 2011, to 92 physicians by 2016. Perhaps the greatest indicator of Balsam’s success is the 71% increase in the number of patient days in 2013. This means that patients are referred to Balsam much earlier in the course of their illness and that they remain under and benefit from Balsam’s care for a much longer period. As a result of earlier referrals, some patients, in fact, have moved out of the category of being ‘high needs patients’ to the category of ‘stabilized patients’. Clearly, these facts and figures testify to Balsam’s success in the fulfillment of its mission to relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of those facing life-threatening illness.
Since 2010, Balsam’s team has simultaneously grown to meet the increasing demand for palliative care. Modelled after the interdisciplinary team approach of US palliative care centers, psychologist Dr. Michael Khoury and pharmacist, Dr. Dania Ghaziri joined Balsam’s team in 2011. AUB Master’s of Public Health graduate Loubna Batlouni joined the team as Outreach Coordinator in 2012, succeeded by Jinane Abi Ramia in 2014. According to Janane and Rebecca, both full-time nurses at AUBMC and part-time nurses at Balsam, Balsam’s first year was a balancing act of building working relationships with each other and handling what seemed like a constant stream of emergencies. During the first 2 years, Dr. Danielle Sara played a critical role in providing periodic support to Balsam nurses with patient care and nurse training. Then, in March 2012, the first full-time nurse, Mohammad Saab, joined the team and nurses’ patient load significantly stabilized. Since 2015, Balsam has supported three full-time nurses, Hiba Shami (2013-2015), Alia El-Tabsh (2014), and Chadia Fayad (2015). Also in 2015, Dr. Aline Zakhem and Dr. Karim Farah, brought their invaluable medical experience and expertise to Balsam’s service. In November 2013 Hiba Makke, a social worker, joined Balsam to support the team and reduce the psycho-social stress that patients and the team may encounter especially when dealing with the most difficult or painful cases, such as pediatric cases. Jinane Abi Ramia took on the role of Outreach Coordinator between 2014 and 2016, and in January 2016, Roula Doughan became Balsam’s Human Resource Manager to support the team while guiding Balsam’s future expansion and direction. Most recently, Dr. Joe El Khoury joined the team of physicians supporting the nurses and providing care the patients and their families at home. A team of one physician and two nurses in 2010, Balsam is now a formidable force of 13 specialists, who work together to anticipate, and more often than not, avoid emergencies. More on Our Team.
Balsam’s impact
Balsam’s impact is not only felt through its life-changing patient care, but also in the multiple roles it plays in advocacy, research, and capacity building. Central to Balsam’s mission is the integration of palliative care into the Lebanese healthcare system. But because palliative care services are not reimbursable by health insurance companies in Lebanon, palliative care is not available or accessible to all, nor is there a real understanding across communities, health care providers, and policy makers of its benefits. By the same token, physicians and nurses are discouraged from choosing palliative care as a career option. However, through Balsam’s efforts, prospects for change are promising.
From its very inception, Balsam sought to partner with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to win support for the recognition of palliative care on policy level. Balsam played a critical role in the establishment of the National Committee for Pain Control and Palliative Care (NCPCPC) under the MOPH in May 2011. This was followed in June 2013 with the MOPH’s issuance of decree 1/1048 that recognized palliative care as a specialty in Lebanon. A few months later, in September 2013, the Medical Specialties Committee of the MOPH certified Dr. Osman as the first Palliative Medicine specialist in Lebanon. These vital steps go a long way towards the goal of the integration of palliative care in the Lebanese healthcare system that Balsam works tirelessly to push through.
One of Balsam’s most ambitious projects, that combines research and advocacy, is the ImPaCT study, supported by GlobeMed, a visionary third party insurance administrator. Launched in 2015, this two-year clinical trial is evaluating the impact of home-based palliative care on the cost of healthcare and quality of life of patients with advanced illness to produce research findings that will help inform policy makers and private insurance providers. Preliminary findings have already shown that Balsam’s services save healthcare costs (and the associated stress of emergency room visits) by catching patient illnesses early and treating patients at home rather than at the hospital.
Capacity building is more difficult to quantify because it is such a natural extension of Balsam’s outreach efforts. Since its very beginning, Balsam’s team members have given numerous public lectures, conference presentations, workshops, and university courses. At AUB, Dr. Osman taught courses in Public Heath and designed and taught a course on palliative care that has become a requirement for all second year medical students which Dr. Zakhem now teaches. At the same time, Balsam has conducted several capacity building workshops and projects. Of the many examples, the following three evince Balsam’s reach on local, national, and regional levels. In 2013, Dr. Osman trained a multidisciplinary team to launch the first hospital-based palliative care initiative in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). Though still in the beginning stages, this initiative has already informed views and approaches to palliative care. The following year, Balsam invited international palliative care specialist, Dr. Frank Ferris, to Beirut to conduct two courses, a leadership course in 2014 and an advanced palliative care course in 2016. Both experiences were especially noteworthy for bringing together medical professionals working in completely different hospital settings around the country for training, ultimately creating a more collaborative environment. In between these two courses, with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and in collaboration with the MOPH, Balsam launched an ambitious capacity building pilot project in 2015. This project developed a hospital-based palliative care model at the Ain WaZein Hospital in the Shuf region of Lebanon involving the training of medical professionals, nurses and physicians in palliative care. On a regional level, Dr. Osman has participated in training workshops in Kuwait, in collaboration with the WHO and the Gulf Federation of Cancer Control, and in Morocco, with the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Balsam’s future
Balsam’s wishes for the future are clear. Nurses, Janane and Rebecca, would like to see the availability of a dedicated hospice in Lebanon. In the short-term, Dr. Osman would like to see Balsam have a sustainable source of funding. Financial stability is one of Balsam’s greatest challenges as its services are offered at no cost to ensure universal accessibility. Presently, Balsam is entirely dependent on individual donations and supporters. Dr. Osman would also like to see palliative care covered by insurance companies and integrated within the national healthcare system. In the longer term, Dr. Osman dreams of scaling up Balsam’s capacity building to train healthcare professionals in palliative care across the country. With the Lebanese life expectancy rising and hospitalization costs also rising, these dreams need to become reality.
Considering Balsam’s achievements on so many different levels, it’s hard to believe that Balsam’s story covers a short 7 years. With its seeds sown in a heartfelt personal experience, Balsam has grown into an organization that combines the immediacy of impact – through patient care, advocacy, research, and capacity building – and a far-reaching vision for the benefit of all.
Testimonials
In Memory of M.M.
To All my family and friends. Thank you all for your sincere condolences. During Mai’s last months with us, we sought the help of an organization in Lebanon called Balsam. This is a charity organization that aims to (and here I quote from their website) “relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of people facing life-threatening illness…”. They do that not only for the terminally ill but also forthe loved ones who also suffer during that time. Here I would like to mention a very special lady, Chadia Fayad, who became one of our family. Her attention and follow-up was a ‘balsam’ (healing lotion) to our wounds. May God bless all those working in this organization. In the absence of a funeral for our dearest Mai Morcos, please consider donating to this organization (through their website www.balsam-lb.org). Every Dollar helps them continue in this blessed mission