Read below article by Martin Armstrong at Daily Star for recap of the last night’s event.

BEIRUT: Over 150 people attended a rock concert Friday night at the recently  reopened T-Marbouta café in Hamra organized by the American University of Beirut (AUB) Human Rights Club in collaboration with the Migrant Workers Task Force (MWTF).

Attendees paid an entrance fee of LL 10,000 with proceeds going toward the purchase of supplies for English and Computer courses offered free to migrant workers at Zico House, Sanayeh and the Migrant Community Center in Nabaa.

Performances came from Mohammad Hodeib, Entity, The 80’s Revolution, Resonance, and EEE’s.

Prior to the music, a buffet of Ethiopian food was served which included: “Doro Wat,” a spicy chicken dish; “Enjera,” Ethiopian bread, lentils; and “Alchamote,” a salad made from carrots, potatoes, and beans.

The highlight of the night’s music came following the scheduled performances, when Eddouard Abbas, from Lebanese hip-hop group Fareeq el Atrash, was joined on stage by an Irish guitar virtuoso known endearingly as “Irish Don,” in an impromptu collaboration that no one expected. Following their performance, the event developed a certain spontaneous open-mic feel, with Edd exclaiming at one point: “Welcome to T-Marbouta has talent.”

On each table, small cards written by migrant workers were placed detailing the difficulties and discrimination they have faced living and working in Lebanon both from employers and Lebanese society in general.

One such card, whose author was anonymous, read: “Some employers treat us as though they own us…We came here as employees not as slaves, and we should be treated as such.”

Hanèn Keskes, an AUB student and organizer of the event, chose to promote the rights of migrant workers after having witnessed racism towards Africans and Asians living and working in Lebanon.

“Just the other day, I was at General Security,” explains Keskes, “and I saw employers renewing their domestic workers’ visas. They wouldn’t even let them hold their own passports. It made me so angry, I thought – ‘How can you do that?’”

Speaking to The Daily Star, Janie Shen, one of the founding members of MWTF, described the event as a positive way to spread awareness of migrant workers’ issues and recruit new volunteers to help the organization’s initiatives at Zico House and The Migrant Community Center.

Shen commented that while there has been an increase in advocacy and campaigning for the rights of domestic workers in Lebanon following the tragic death of Ethiopian Alem Dechasa-Desisa in March of this year there is still a long way to go.

“Human Rights Groups and NGOs have become more active and migrant communities themselves have become more mobilized,” said Shen. “However, for real, concrete change to occur, we need to change attitudes and perceptions both in society at large and on a legal level.”

Alem committed suicide a month after she was physically abused outside the Ethiopian consulate in a videotaped incident that drew international attention.

There are approximately 200,000 domestic workers in Lebanon. Human rights watchdogs have said that some employers withhold wages from domestic workers, deny them time off, and that some workers suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-26/174725-rock-for-migrant-workers-rights.ashx#ixzz1vzoC79xR
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

The AUB Human Rights Club, in collaboration with the Migrant Workers Task Force, gladly present “ROCK FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS”, a night of Live music at T-Marbouta (Near Starbucks Hamra).

Entrance Fee: 10.000 LL (including a coupon for Ethiopian food- on a first come first serve basis)

Proceeds will go to the Migrant Workers Task Force (MWTF) and will contribute to purchasing supplies for free English and Computer courses offered to migrant workers.

Bands performing: 
Resonance
EEE’s
Entity
Mohammed Hodeib
The 601

CD’s of authentic Ethiopian music will also be played after the band performances.

See you there!

We recorded this video on the Sunday class following Alem Dechasa’s death in Beirut. The class that day was dedicated to discussing Alem, and the thoughts, feelings and reactions our students felt towards her treatment and ultimately death. Read all about the class and discussions in this previous post.

Following the discussions and messages written by our students we also edited and finalized this video. It took some time to finalize the editing but finally it’s here, better late than never.

Below is a translation of the written Arabic messages:

“I suffer from racial discrimination. To whom should I complain? I want to live in Dignity.”

“Migrant workers and housekeepers suffer and die in Lebanon”

“No to the killing of migrant domestic workers, stop the torture.”

“The migrant workers, don’t kill us.”

“Where is the minister of human affairs?”

“Don’t kill us, we are workers, we want to live in dignity . See us as humans, like you.”

“To the Ethiopian embassy: If you do not want to protect us, resign your jobs, we’ve had enough with torture.”

“No to slavery”

“Justice for Alem”

Translation of the Amharic messages will be added soon.

Une protection légale pour les travailleurs migrants au Liban. Une société libanaise où tous les êtres humains seront traités de manière égale. Ils en rêvaient. Ils ne sont pas restés les bras croisés et ont décidé de créer la MWTF (Migrant Workers Task Force). Grâce à cette communauté, des volontaires tendent la main à des migrants travailleurs vivant au Liban. Levée de voile sur leur engagement.

Vous faites partie de ceux qui n’ont plus envie de fermer les yeux sur les atrocités subies par certains travailleurs domestiques au Liban? Le suicide, il y a quelques semaines, d’Alem Dechasa, cette jeune domestique originaire d’Ethiopie vous a ébranlé (voir encadré)? Heureusement, l’engagement et le travail sur le terrain de certains jeunes peut encore vous donner de l’espoir.
Ils sont certes une poignée de personnes; vingt-huit volontaires au total. Mais depuis un an, leur travail n’a pas cessé et a augmenté. Tout a commencé en janvier 2011. Un groupe de Libanais et d’étrangers ne pouvait plus accepter qu’un travailleur migrant soit en train de mourir chaque semaine dans des circonstances troubles au Liban. Ce groupe refusait aussi que 80% des travailleurs domestiques ne soient pas autorisés à sortir du domicile de leur employeur. Convaincus que ces travailleurs ont droit à des opportunités et doivent bénéficier de la pleine protection légale qu’ils méritent en tant qu’êtres humains, ces volontaires ont établi des solutions et ont proposé des initiatives de base. Parmi ces dernières, l’enseignement
de cours d’anglais et de français à 100 travailleurs migrants originaires du Madagascar, de l’Ethiopie, du Bénin, du Soudan, du Sénégal, du Burkina Faso, de Côte-d’Ivoire, du Népal et du Sri Lanka. Ces cours sont donnés à Beyrouth, et précisément au Zico House à Hamra et au Centre communautaire des migrants. Ils visent à habiliter les migrants à se défendre, leur permettre de s’exprimer correctement devant les instances administratives.
Au-delà de Beyrouth, les responsables espèrent commencer à fournir des cours de langue dans d’autres endroits et régions libanaises. Autre initiative proposée par la MWTF: des ateliers de sensibilisation portant sur la santé. Ce qui donne la possibilité aux travailleurs migrants d’exprimer leurs pensées et leurs opinions sur des questions pertinentes concernant ce sujet. Outre l’éducation et la santé, la MWTF est une plateforme qui permet aussi aux Libanais et aux étrangers d’apprendre davantage sur la culture des communautés de migrants en provenance d’Asie et d’Afrique grâce à des cours de cuisine et de danse. Quant aux Libanais intéressés d’organiser des dîners et voulant commander des plats éthiopiens, sri-lankais, ou népalais, ils peuvent passer par le site de la MWTF qui ne prend évidemment aucune commission et qui les met en relation avec ces fournisseurs. Une initiative qui permet aux travailleurs migrants d’avoir une source de revenus supplémentaires et d’explorer leurs compétences en affaires. Pauline Mouhanna (Etats-Unis).

Le suicide de trop
L’information a fait le tour du monde. Les médias libanais et étrangers ont tous commenté son suicide. Sur YouTube, les vidéos de son agression choquent les internautes. Alem Dechasa, battue devant le consulat de son propre pays l’Ethiopie, s’est suicidée à l’hôpital psychiatrique du couvent de la Croix. Le suicide de trop pour les étudiants et les volontaires de la MTWF qui ont décidé durant un cours de langue de crier leur colère. Sur des posters, ils ont écrit des messages suivants: «On a besoin de la justice». La MTWF a également appelé à une protestation devant le ministère du Travail libanais.

For the third year in a row, a collective group of volunteers, students and migrants joined to host “Migrant Workers’ Day” event which allows migrant workers of different backgrounds to express and exchange their cultures by introducing their cuisines, dances and crafts.

This year MWTF introduced the ‘Community Chefs’, the amazing chefs who prepared the meal on sale from Ethiopia, Nepal, Ivory Coast, the Philippines and Sudan. Being a ‘Community Chef’ empowers migrant workers to an alternative income generation through teaching how to cook their cuisines to catering for dinners and events.

Would you be interested in learning to cook or need catering for an event?
Email us at mwtaskforce.lb@gmail.com!

Community Chefs from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Sudan will be selling their delicious national dishes and drinks. Join for a bite or even take away! There will be some dances from Ethiopia and Ivory Coast. A tent for henna painting. And lots of African and Asian musical beats!

Come celebrate cultural diversity and support migrant workers’ own initiatives! Souk el Tayeb takes place between 9am and 2pm in the far end of Beirut Souks, close to the sea and next to the Medgulf building.

Last Sunday 1 April, at Mubarak’s (one of our Sudanese student) initiative, two minibuses were waiting outside Zico house at 9AM to take over 20 students and a few volunteers up to Faraya to see the snow. Although we all lived in Lebanon for some time, many of us had never been up the Lebanese mountains before, and some of us had never seen snow in our life! It was a lovely day filled with sunshine and excitement. All of us took the lift to the top of Jabal Dib. And despite freezing our faces off from the blistering winds, plenty of photographs were taken with a brave smile. Snow ball fights were popular as well as snow angels. A few students even made the effort of building a snowman which apparently was suppose to resemble their teacher, guess who?

See more photos from the trip here.

Justice must be demanded and sought through protest and activism. We, not as MWTF, but as individuals,   are protesting in front Lebanon’s Ministry of Labor to make it loud and clear that the status quo is driving many migrant workers to suicide and ONE SUICIDE BY A MIGRANT WORKER IS ONE TOO MANY!

On Sunday, March 18, 2012 SCORA sent seven peer educators to lead peer discussions on reproductive health. But this was not their normal sessions as the delegations normally visit secondary schools. This Sunday was a special session as three different discussions were held (one for men in Arabic, and two for women: French and Arabic) according to the needs of approximately 30 migrant students at Zico House. Armed with simple colored posters and their cumulated knowledge from medical school, the facilitators engaged the students in conversations on topics such as anatomy, breast cancer prevention and practicing safe sex. Of course, these are only a few of the questions that were posed, answered and shared. Among more serious topics discussed were FGM and the complex relationship between the HIV virus and AIDS. Students’ reactions ranged from thoughtful stares, muttered whispers and cackling laughs. By the end of the two and a half hour session life saving knowledge was exchanged and the students were grateful for the practical information that could be put to use immediately and shared with their loved ones. One more initiative for migrant workers in Lebanon; many more to come.

What is SCORA? The Standing Committee on Reproductive Health including AIDS (SCORA) is a medical student association founded at the American University of Beirut under the supervision of IFMSA. IFMSA is a known international medical student association that encompasses about 400,000 medical students from more than 90 countries collaborating with the WHO and several UN agencies.

In Lebanon, SCORA works in close cooperation with the National AIDS program (NAP), and the Ministry of Health in order to promote awareness about HIV-AIDS , and other sexually transmitted disease among the Lebanese youth population. This is accomplished through many projects such as workshops, awareness campaigns during World AIDS Day on December 1^st and most importantly Peer-education.