Asthma Center - Childhood protection and care association Child hood

Sport day Nurses Formation Session

Inauguration of the"Childhood Asthma Center"
February 8, 2006

Address of the First Lady

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

I am extremely glad to welcome you here today, to celebrate with you the manifesting of a project dear to my heart.

The Childhood Protection and Care Association that I have founded two years ago and which I have the honor to preside has added to the many services it already provides, a center for children with asthma, the first of its kind in Lebanon. And I have the pleasure to announce today its official inauguration.

Some may wonder why the implementing of a center for asthmatic children whereas the needs of sick children are many, especially that our association has rather specialized in the care of children with hearing problems, facilitating the cochlear implant procedure and its subsequent treatment, thanks notably to the Minister of Health Mr. Mohammad Khalife.

But recent surveys of the OMS show that asthma is the first pathological childhood-related illness and that 50 percent of asthma cases begin before the age of five.

In Lebanon, a study conducted by the Isaac (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) with 2059 school children showed that 12% of those children suffer from asthma and that 5% of them have the severe strain of that illness.

But what is terrible is that in most cases asthmatic children are not well treated, first due to a lack of global treatment, and second because most of the times parents refuse the illness' diagnosis and act as if it didn't exist. Result is the treatment extended to children is not continuous and stops after the crises. In all cases it remains unadapted. In short, Asthma in Lebanon remains a taboo subject.

The Childhood Protection and Care Association, being present for both children and their parents, has found the necessity to act in that dimension, neglected because it is considered secondary, whereas statistics show that child mortality due to asthma is growing, although efficient treatment is available.

It ensued then that death of children due to untreated asthma is absolutely out of the question. That is why we have chosen to create this center destined to help parents and children to cope with this illness and to understand it better in order to treat it more efficiently.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the Childhood Protection and Care Association has thus founded the Childhood Asthma Center in order to better the lives of asthmatic children and their families. I invite you today to visit it and all your suggestions are welcome.

Your support is precious and your solidarity the best gift to be offered to a sick child and its family.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the name of the association and in that of all this center's staff, this center that is destined to become a haven and a meeting place for sick children and their families, I thank you for being here.

Your presence shows that you partake with us the same values, those of help, love and sharing.

Together we will succeed. Together we will be able to fight this illness. And our solidarity will let smiles blossom on the faces of sick children.

Thank you.

President Lahoud participated in the launching of The Childhood Asthma Center funded by Mrs. Andrée Lahoud in Hazmieh.

Among the participants were notably present the Minister of Health Dr. Mohammad Khalife, Mrs. Mouna Harawi, former Minister Mrs. Leila Solh, Mrs. Neemat Kanaan as well as representatives of the Ministries of Social Affairs, Education, the French Embassy and a number of doctors and social workers.

After Mrs. Lahoud’s address, Mrs. Danielle Farhat, the Center's director, talked about its role and importance in helping the child and his family cope with the illness, asking the persons present to classify asthma as a morbid illness. Followed was an intervention by Dr. Paul Henri Tarabay, one of the center's doctors who explained in details the symptoms, prevention and treatment of asthma.

President Lahoud then toured the center, visiting each wing, their equipment, and the special unit for new-born babies.

It is worth noting that the Childhood Asthma Center is equipped to receive new-borns and children up to the age of 15, especially those who suffer of asthma and are regularly taken into hospital emergencies, those who need confirmation of diagnosis, as well as those who need a year-supply of corticoids.