Former Eastporter offers support for Palestinian youths

A former Eastporter who wanted to improve the lives of youngsters living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon has founded an initiative to advance support for those children. David Bakis, who works full time in the American Community School in Beirut, has created "Al Thulathy Al Mareh," a program to open hearts and minds of his neighbors. He notes, "The chief aim of this initiative is to advance support for Palestinian refugee children living in Lebanon. The idea is simple. An advocate, whether Lebanese or an ex-pat living in Lebanon, invites two Palestinian children out of a refugee camp twice a month and develops a relationship with them. The volunteer advocate will act as a mentor to these two children, providing friendship, support, encouragement, advocacy, and most importantly, understanding. Through this triadic relationship, we hope to develop a close-knit trio."

Bakis points out that another important objective of the initiative "is to extend a dialogue between Palestinians and primarily Lebanese, in order to help bridge the divide between these two amiable peoples living C quite often segmented C within the same borders. Through this collaboration, further Palestinian integration into Lebanese society is made possible, while providing Palestinian children consistent relief from the squalor of refugee camp life."

Bakis is a 1995 graduate of Shead High School, and his mother, Beth Bush, says, "I am obviously very proud of what he is doing.... I also think his story would be inspiring to other Shead students."

Bakis has a BA in psychology from the University of Southern Maine and a master's in education counseling psychology from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. "Right after grad school I moved to Madrid, Spain, for six months to study Spanish [so I could] work with inner city gang-involved youth in and around Boston," recalls Bakis. After returning to Massachusetts and working the next year-and-a-half with gang-involved youth in Brockton, he worked as a school counselor for two years each in Istanbul, Turkey, and Copenhagen, Denmark, before accepting his current position at an American school in Lebanon.

Bakis says his involvement with the Palestinians actually stems from a trip to Israel that he took while he was in Istanbul. "I volunteered with terror victims in Jerusalem. I also wanted to volunteer on the Palestinian side, but before I left for the trip, I met with an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul who advised me not to and then handed me a DVD C which I didn't know at the time was a propaganda video," recalls Bakis. "The video did the job. It scared me, and I didn't want to go to Palestine."

However, during his trip to Israel, Bakis had to drive from the Sea of Galilee down to Jerusalem, and the only way to do it was to travel through the West Bank. "As I drove through, I experienced nothing like what the video had laid out. I stopped the car and entered into a refugee camp near Nablus [and] found a very friendly, welcoming people. I then discovered the destruction and devastation caused by Israel. Since then, I have been committed to the plight of the Palestinians."

When he moved to Lebanon and discovered that the Lebanese generally don't want the Palestinians in their country as refugees, Bakis became even more saddened about the Palestinians' plight. "There are 70-plus professions in Lebanon that Palestinians may not hold C including doctors, lawyers and engineers," he says. "Also, they may not buy property. Simply, I've been slowly realizing that there's not any Arab state that is truly supporting and fully advocating for the Palestinians C thus, the impetus for my reconciliation project."

Beth Bush says her son's devotion to brightening the lives of youngsters growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp does not surprise her at all. "It's just his nature. He always enjoyed working with children. This is really in his soul."

To learn more about Al Thulathy Al Mareh or make a donation, contact Bakis at <dbadis@acs.edu.lib>.