Ete Mete - Free Daycare for Migrant Mothers, LB
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IF YOU LIVE IN LEBANON AND WOULD LIKE TO DONATE, PLEASE CONTACT US VIA INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK DIRECT MESSAGES.
lisa luxx is an activist, poet and writer of British and Syrian heritage. She has functioned in a transnational mutual aid capacity for 6 years. Her poems are published in The Telegraph, The London Magazine and by publishers including Hatchette and Saqi Books. Her work is broadcasted on Channel 4, BBC Radio 4 and TEDx.
What We Are Raising Money for
The Ete Mete daycare is run by migrant women for migrant women in Lebanon. Since the Fall of 2021, the daycare creates stable employment opportunities during these hard times. For migrant mothers, the situation is harder. With rising costs of daycare services, many cannot afford daycare because they are out of work but they cannot find work because they need daycare. A free daycare space will give mothers the opportunity to sustain employment and a stable source of income that will stabilize their lives.
We are raising funds to continue the Ete Mete daycare as a free space to give women the opportunity to find the work they desperately need. In addition to providing jobs in the daycare and giving more mothers who use the daycare the opportunity to work, the daycare is also a safe, anti-racist space.
Lebanon is a dangerous place for immigrant workers because of the outdated kafala (sponsorship) system and practices still kept in place. The system in place leads to abuse, precarity, and blatant racism that normalizes challenges and uphill battles for migrant mothers, with little to no due diligence or justice. The daycare prohibits and outright condemns the systemic racism its mothers and children experience on a daily basis, offering physical safety and relief from racist psychological duress.
The Project
We are asking for donations for 6 months of daycare and programming fees for the Ete Mete Daycare until we can access a formal fund for long-term sustainability.
This is a breakdown of the cost we are asking for:
£5000 for 6 months of wages
£830 legal fees (this will be used as a month extra wages if not needed for legal fees)
£450 workshops
£240 workshop facilitators
£480 educational resources
£200 gofundme fees
Total: £7200
Once the daycare wages and space has been funded, we can then support future programming. Employed women at the daycare have also laid out a project plan to start educational programs for older refugee children who've dropped out of school due to difficulties in maintaining legal status or required papers to apply to schools in Lebanon
These kids are between the ages of 10 to 15 years old, some of them work in grocery shops or parking lots in the area. The older children miss out on attending school and learning basic skills of reading and writing.
The educational program will launch a literacy program for these children and many other recreational activities and life skills training in order to open new paths for their future,
Having children of all backgrounds will teach their generation in Lebanon to live together in tolerance and peace.
Who We Are
We are the Nehna Hon collective, a network of feminist, anti-racism activists operating in Beirut. We are made up of Lebanese natives, migrant women and foreigners. For us, Nehna Hon is not an organization, it's a practice. A place for us to practice our politics of care and community together. We practice building anti-racist communicative institutions like the daycare to imagine and practice a different future. We want to remember the future worth fighting for.
Following the 2019 revolution, the economic collapse, the pandemic and the August 4th blast, we met each other as independent activists operating in the grassroots aid distribution network. We each worked by bringing money in from the diaspora and using it to supply those below the poverty line (namely migrant women, former domestic workers, commonly victims of human trafficking, single mothers and refugees) with safe shelter, food and medicine. During this period we noticed the challenges of providing aid, being that it creates relationships of dependence which are disempowering. We wanted to put autonomy at the forefront of our feminist praxis. The help we provide is a type of mutual aid; one in which we understand that some of us have harder fights alone that we all need to collectivize for.
Our collective also hosts storytelling events, a radio show, feminist meetings and workshops for women of all nationalities with the aim of elevating migrant women's voices in Lebanon and across the region.
lisa luxx is an activist, poet and writer of British and Syrian heritage. She has functioned in a transnational mutual aid capacity for 6 years. Her poems are published in The Telegraph, The London Magazine and by publishers including Hatchette and Saqi Books. Her work is broadcasted on Channel 4, BBC Radio 4 and TEDx.
What We Are Raising Money for
The Ete Mete daycare is run by migrant women for migrant women in Lebanon. Since the Fall of 2021, the daycare creates stable employment opportunities during these hard times. For migrant mothers, the situation is harder. With rising costs of daycare services, many cannot afford daycare because they are out of work but they cannot find work because they need daycare. A free daycare space will give mothers the opportunity to sustain employment and a stable source of income that will stabilize their lives.
We are raising funds to continue the Ete Mete daycare as a free space to give women the opportunity to find the work they desperately need. In addition to providing jobs in the daycare and giving more mothers who use the daycare the opportunity to work, the daycare is also a safe, anti-racist space.
Lebanon is a dangerous place for immigrant workers because of the outdated kafala (sponsorship) system and practices still kept in place. The system in place leads to abuse, precarity, and blatant racism that normalizes challenges and uphill battles for migrant mothers, with little to no due diligence or justice. The daycare prohibits and outright condemns the systemic racism its mothers and children experience on a daily basis, offering physical safety and relief from racist psychological duress.
The Project
We are asking for donations for 6 months of daycare and programming fees for the Ete Mete Daycare until we can access a formal fund for long-term sustainability.
This is a breakdown of the cost we are asking for:
£5000 for 6 months of wages
£830 legal fees (this will be used as a month extra wages if not needed for legal fees)
£450 workshops
£240 workshop facilitators
£480 educational resources
£200 gofundme fees
Total: £7200
Once the daycare wages and space has been funded, we can then support future programming. Employed women at the daycare have also laid out a project plan to start educational programs for older refugee children who've dropped out of school due to difficulties in maintaining legal status or required papers to apply to schools in Lebanon
These kids are between the ages of 10 to 15 years old, some of them work in grocery shops or parking lots in the area. The older children miss out on attending school and learning basic skills of reading and writing.
The educational program will launch a literacy program for these children and many other recreational activities and life skills training in order to open new paths for their future,
Having children of all backgrounds will teach their generation in Lebanon to live together in tolerance and peace.
Who We Are
We are the Nehna Hon collective, a network of feminist, anti-racism activists operating in Beirut. We are made up of Lebanese natives, migrant women and foreigners. For us, Nehna Hon is not an organization, it's a practice. A place for us to practice our politics of care and community together. We practice building anti-racist communicative institutions like the daycare to imagine and practice a different future. We want to remember the future worth fighting for.
Following the 2019 revolution, the economic collapse, the pandemic and the August 4th blast, we met each other as independent activists operating in the grassroots aid distribution network. We each worked by bringing money in from the diaspora and using it to supply those below the poverty line (namely migrant women, former domestic workers, commonly victims of human trafficking, single mothers and refugees) with safe shelter, food and medicine. During this period we noticed the challenges of providing aid, being that it creates relationships of dependence which are disempowering. We wanted to put autonomy at the forefront of our feminist praxis. The help we provide is a type of mutual aid; one in which we understand that some of us have harder fights alone that we all need to collectivize for.
Our collective also hosts storytelling events, a radio show, feminist meetings and workshops for women of all nationalities with the aim of elevating migrant women's voices in Lebanon and across the region.
Organizer
lisa luxx
Organizer
England