Trusting in God, nun works with Lebanese children in Beirut slum

Published: 2004-04-01

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Melhem used to pass his time standing on the street, throwing pebbles at passersby, instead of attending school like other 5-year-old boys. Now, after help from Good Shepherd Sister Hanan, he is one of the best students in his second-grade class and is the first to scold other boys who get into mischief on the street. Melhem is one of the 5,000 or so children who live in Roueissat, a slum in north Beirut. Crowded into a steep area about the size of a football field are scores of tiny dwellings, most without running water or electricity. Sister Hanan calls the slum "the Hill of Misery." Sister Hanan -- her name means "tenderness" -- asked to be sent by her order to Roueissat in 1996; she said she took with her a lot of determination and faith in God. "I felt very strongly that the face of the Good Shepherd must be present to these children, so that they may have a better future," she said.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .