Brummana High School celebrates 150 years, invites Friends to sustain its future
photo at Right: the 250-year-old pine “mother tree” stands across the courtyard from a 150-year-old olive tree transplanted to the BHS campus in honour of its founding in 1873.
Dear Friends,
It has been my privilege and responsibility over the last twenty years to serve as a Trustee of QuIET (Quaker International Educational Trust.) QuIET is the only British trust that owns property overseas, held at the specific request of Lebanese Quakers and the Lebanese Government who
grant us the license to educate our 1,250 pupils, under the Quaker banner, at Brummana High School.
Without doubt these last three years of our 150 year old tenure have been some of the most challenging but the school survives and is in more demand than ever from local and Middle Eastern families. Please do what you and/or your Local Meeting can to support us and the whole team at Brummana in keeping this beacon burning bright in one of the most traumatised regions of the World.
In Friendship,
Paul High
Chair, Quaker International Educational Trust
Brummana High School has entered its 150th year and that in itself is a cause for celebration since its longevity in deeply troubled Lebanon has seen it survive invasions, civil wars, regional and world wars, occupations, bombardments, famines and now complete economic collapse. Today inflation stands at 210%, unemployment at 60% and poverty levels at 80% of the population. There is no president and a government of a nominal nature only. The country’s infrastructure has disintegrated, shortages are everywhere and power cuts are a daily and protracted occurrence. Yet life goes on and education represents the glimmer of hope on all parents’ horizons, representing the chance for their children of a prosperous, poverty free future, life with dignity and of the foundations of democracy.
In spite of all our troubles we have never had a higher school roll (1273) nor higher numbers of applications for places, but on account of the financial situation we struggle to meet our costs which are largely in US Dollars, when our income is largely in Lebanese Lira. The first celebration of the 150th year took place on Saturday January 21st when the school staged a marvellous academic fair in which 200 projects of ingenuity, innovation, creativity, the result of great sustained application of effort, were displayed in school to the acclaim of over 1000 parents, teachers, Trustees, Governors and friends of the school. They covered Languages, Mathematics, Sciences, Social Sciences, Art, Economics and Business and children aged 10-18, brim full of optimism demonstrated and explained their solutions to the world’s problems through projects which ranged from water conservation to alternative forms of energy, to discussion and dialogue in response to conflict. Their work is testament to the power of education to change people’s lives and, God willing, to provide for a better, more peaceful, happier future.
JND Gray
Principal, Brummana High School
Read more about Brummana High School’s 150th anniversary celebrations
Donations to BHS can me made directly online here
