ردًا على بعض الإشاعات التي تناولت العمل الاغترابي والمساعدات الاجتماعية والدعم الذي يقدمه المغتربون الى المؤسسات اللبنانية عبر UHelp Commitee، صدر بيان توضيحي من Uhelp Commitee ورئيس وعدد من أعضاء الجمعية الدرزية الاميركية وشخصيات من الجالية اللبنانية الاميركية، تنشره جريدة "الأنباء" الإلكترونية، وترفق به جميع المستندات التي توضح الحقائق، وتدحض الإشاعات الكاذبة التي تم تداولها حول شفافية الملف.
ويؤكد البيان أنّ الهدف الوحيد هو ضمان استمرار النظام الطبي المتأثّر بشدة بالأزمة الاقتصادية التي يمر بها لبنان، وذلك من خلال إنشاء برنامج للأطباء العاملين في المستشفيات لخدمة الناس من مختلف الأطياف الدينية والسياسية.
*نص الكامل للبيان:
False Information and Misleading Rumors
Dear respected members of our community,
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One of the tenets of our community is the importance of helping those in need. When UACCL/UHELP was formed a year ago, it was formed with the sole purpose of ensuring the medical system, strongly impacted by Lebanon’s economic crisis would continue to remain in operation. This was done by establishing the Physician Retention Program for doctors working in hospitals serving people from various religious and political backgrounds.
There is currently an article by Ms. Mariam Magdalene Lahham, published by
?“Al Taharri” in Lebanon, circulating on social media which has been propagating falsehoods about the work of the UHELP Committee. This letter is being sent to present the facts and dispel the untrue rumors being spread.
First, the UHELP committee has no direct connection to the ADS. Being a charitable organization, The ADS president, Mr. Walid Abdelkhalek and his board graciously provided a vehicle for UHELP to wire money to the hospitals through a special bank account administered by UHELP chairman, co-chairman, and the ADS president. UHELP represents all four Druze organizations in the United States, namely, American Druze Society, American Druze Foundation, DOCO, and Lebanese For Lebanon Foundation (LFLF). The committee is comprised of member volunteers who are known for their professionalism, integrity, and compassion for our people everywhere.
Second, and unfortunately, the national board of the ADS has been going through internal turbulence and disagreements on issues related to the ADS itself for some time. Contrary to what Ms. Lahham states, the resignation of some of the board members and the president were not in any way connected to the way UHELP is conducting its philanthropic operations. The ADS president and the resigning members have separately issued statements regarding the reasons for their resignation and stressing that these resignations have nothing to do with UHELP or covering up a fabricated “scandal”; there is no scandal. Please see the attached declaration letters from the ADS president Mr. Abdelkhalek, and the board members.
Third, Dr. Samer Suki, who is active with several organizations and a known philanthropist, is one of the national board members who resigned. Dr. Suki also is a member on UHELP. If the claims of this group propagating this misinformation are true about resignations due to irregularities with UHELP donations, should not Dr. Suki have resigned from UHELP as well? Dr. Suki remains on this committee. A clear proof of twisted facts to suit a false fabrication.
Fourth, the group spreading misinformation has based its fabricated “scandal” on physicians’ payments from a sheet which was circulated in early summer of last year showing large differences in payment distributions to physicians through the Physician Retention Program (PRP). When we got hold of this sheet, The Chairman of UHELP, Dr. Hayel Said, traveled to Lebanon in August of last year and met with Dr. Zouheir El Imad, General Manager of Ain Wzein Medical Village (AWMV) to address the payments in question. Dr. El Imad explained the reasons for distribution fluctuations among physicians. There are three categories of physicians in Ain Wzein hospital: full timers, part timers, and consultants. Consultants usually show up once or two times a month and are paid per visit. The main source of their income is from their own private practices or their affiliation with other hospitals. The distribution given to these physicians is, therefore, much less than those given to full timers and part timers because they have limited time at the hospital. AWMV, like every hospital in Lebanon, has a standard set of compensation criteria approved by the syndicate of physicians and the Ministry of Health. The Chairman asked Dr. El Imad for these criteria and he provided them to the UHELP committee on August 25, 2021. Please see the AWMV payment criteria. Any suggestion that doctors received higher compensation based on certain partisan affiliations, is false. UHELP has no connection with any party or any political figure in Lebanon and is the sole body specifying how and where the money is allocated. We keep a close eye on donations and hospital reports, and we do constant verification of the data we receive. For example, one doctor at the Al-Jabal hospital was erroneously reported to receive almost 30 million liras in August, and when the error was discovered by Dr. Assef Zobian, the Co-Chairman of UHELP, he contacted the hospital and questioned that large sum. The hospital acknowledged that an error was made in reporting only, because the doctor received the right amount owed of 4,080,000 LL. We reported the error and the correction back in our January letter.
Fifth, the presence of Mr. Sami El Kadi, president of LFLF on the committee, and the representative of the Progressive Party, absolutely does not influence the decisions of the seventeen other members of UHELP. LFLF spearheaded the campaign that raised $480,000 to buy 16 ICU beds for our hospitals during the height of COVID-19 pandemic, and before UHELP was formed. This is well documented and can be easily verified by checking with the hospitals. Ms. Lahham, and her group providing the incorrect information, ignored this fact.
In addition to volunteering, the importance of truth is a central dogma of our faith. It is disconcerting that our committee is facing conspiracy theories by individuals who to date have neither donated time nor financial resources to help the dire medical crisis in Lebanon. It would behoove Ms. Lahham and those who she is supporting to volunteer their time and resources towards the benefit of the greater good rather than trying to deflate a campaign whose sole purpose is to benefit those in need. Additionally, the basic credential of a credible journalist is to ensure the veracity of all information and to discuss the presented information with all parties involved. Ms. Lahham never bothered to contact any UHELP member for clarifications, nor did she even want to modify her story after Dr. Zobian talked to her and sent her a chain of emails showing the inaccuracies of her claims.
Another false rumor that is being circulated is that 20% of the donations are kept by the committee as administrative expenses. A sizable sum of the donations that are being sent, are from the UHELP committee members themselves. Further, the letters that we have been sending to the community on at least a monthly basis list the names of the donors, the donations collected, and the receipts from the four hospitals showing the amounts received. The amounts sent and the amounts received match dollar for dollar.
The false accusations that are being propagated hurt only our people who are undergoing immense misery, poverty, and health issues. Two of our most generous members of UHELP, Mr. Ghassan Saab from the American Druze Foundation and his dynamic wife Mrs. Manal Saab have sourced and secured over $100 million towards medical supplies, medical spare parts, and medications to all hospitals in Lebanon during the COVID pandemic. Mrs. Saab has been acknowledged and honored by multiple international and Lebanese agencies for her vital work. These false accusations will not tarnish the integrity of the Saabs or the other dedicated members of UHELP, but it could land a big blow to our people in Lebanon who depend on having sound operating medical facilities to go to when the need comes. Indeed, the need has never been more crucial than over the last two years, as shown by
Dr. El Imad’s letter to the U.S. community last month. What would have happened to them had our hospitals been forced to close due to mass exodus of doctors or due to lack of funding or lack of supplies? The Physician Retention Program, which has collected and sent approximately $550,000 after one year, saved many lives and kept our four hospitals open to receive patients from all areas of Lebanon.
God bless those of you who have helped keep these hospitals running and limit the damage the economic crisis has had on the Lebanese health care system. We look forward for your continued support and hope that those who choose to criticize will instead choose to do good.
*المستندات المرفقة:
