Its activities have also expanded to Iraq where it organized meetings and camps in the regions where people returned to their villages, after being forced by the terrorism of ISIS, in its various types and shapes, out of their houses. «OffreJoie» has endeavored, since the Lebanese civil war, to bypass both geographical crossings between regions and psychological borders between citizens compelled to separate by de facto forces. I remember it once organized a camp in Bekaa for a thousand young boys and girls who came from all regions. The participants had broken into (an organized peaceful access) the then-named border strip area, given it was a Lebanese territory that should not be excluded from their visit to the regions. The participants spent the night at and with the town’s families. I spent that night at a Shiite family in Bint Jbeil and received amazing hospitality.
«OffreJoie», the ever active NGO, focuses on reconciling people, first and foremost, particularly in the memory of the Lebanese War. This is what it did in Iraq and it might expand to other countries in a region, steeped in fraternal wars.
This brings me to the suffering of the Syrian refugees, the matter of their safe, voluntary, permanent or temporary return home and other terms that turn them into a commodity among nations and political accounts. To return, for them, is to restore their lands, homes and these rights, accompanied with other due human, social, political, religious and other rights. Then, all the previous statements become meaningless, for we have all experienced war and displacement and we know the value of regaining land and honor.