Supporting Basmeh & Zeitooneh 2018

A MESSAGE FROM THE MALEK FAMILY:
To all of our friends and colleagues who have reached out to us over the past several years to ask us what you can do to help stem the humanitarian crisis affecting Syria and its people, thank you.  

Please join us in supporting Basmeh & Zeitooneh  via the Smile & Olive Foundation: we believe in this wonderful organization and the great work they do with Syrian refugees in Lebanon. (Basmeh & Zeitooneh is Arabic for “a smile and an olive.”)

This is our fourth giving season supporting Basmeh & Zeitooneh. Thanks to your generosity and solidarity, during the 2015, 2016, and 2017 campaigns, we have (so far) raised over $25,000 for Basmeh & Zeitooheh.

Basmeh & Zeitooneh is a legally registered Lebanese charity based in Beirut, whose mission is to provide humanitarian support and assistance for Syrian refugees.  Such relief efforts are ongoing on a significant scale, mainly in Lebanon,  and to a lesser extent,  in Turkey as well.   

The Smile & Olive Foundation is a volunteer effort by Syrian-Americans  with the express purpose of raising funds to support Basmeh & Zeitooneh.

The money we raise here will go to two specific programs: the Women's Workshop and Education. (For more details, see the links.) Without new funding, the Women's Workshop will be forced to close in December.

The Smile & Olive Foundation (“TSOF”), E.I. Number 81-5129089, is a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation that has received a ruling from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that it is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Charitable contributions to TSOF are tax-deductible to U.S. taxpayers to the extent permitted by section 170 of the Code. 

FULL DISCLOSURE: As of early 2017, Alia sits on the USA and Global boards.