Lubna Izziddin is the founder and member of the board of SANAD, a home hospice organization in Lebanon. Lubna is Jordanian Lebanese and has more than 20 years of experience in youth development, involvement and protection, with UN agencies, NGOs and other organizations operating in this field. In 2013, Lubna took on the role of Executive Director at Mentor Arabia, a regional drug prevention organization based in Beirut. Lubna holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Jordan and was a volunteer with children and young adults with physical disabilities during her early days at university. Most recently, Lubna has been dedicating her time towards the establishment and promotion of SANAD, a full-fledged home hospice organization that offers free-of-charge medical, social and psychological support for terminally ill patients and their families, in the comfort of their own home.
My mother was diagnosed with cancer 14 years ago in Jordan. She was treated for 3 years before her doctor declared that she was terminally ill. The family was in shock knowing that there was no hope left and that the countdown had just started. We were transferred by her doctor to a society called “Al-Malath”. Al-Malath was the first organization of its kind in the Arab world to provide home hospice care, a discipline we had never heard about before. They offered us all the support we needed, in the sanctuary of our home. Because of Al-Malath, my mom’s final months were pain-free and all about comfort, pride, love, and life. Al-Malath inspired me to do the same with other patients and their families, and with a group of friends, we decided to follow their suit in Lebanon. In January 2010, we established SANAD, the home hospice organization of Lebanon. You can learn more about SANAD by visiting our website: www.sanadhospice.org.
The main and most important lessons I’ve learned are: Seize each and every opportunity that comes your way. Any opportunity is good, whatever it is; it can open unexpected doors for your organization. Always seek your team’s advice. I’m stating the obvious I know, but it’s not easy to always think of this option first, but the wonders that come from teamwork and collective brainstorming are invaluable. Keep it real. Always remember to stay genuine and true to your cause; stay in touch with the small and big issues and keep that passion as pure and as fresh as it was when you started. Embrace the success of others. Share other NGOs’ stories, celebrate their cause, provide support when you can, it will reinforce our collective role as a civil society and strengthen our presence and validate what we stand for. Stay humble. There is nothing greater than feeling proud, while treating every new achievement as if it were the first and reminding yourself that you still have a long way to go. Choose the right supporters. Do not compromise your values or standards for the sake of an extra donation. Make sure to associate yourself with people who share your values, whose reputation is intact and who will carry you forward and not be a burden on your shoulders.
In Lebanon, as in other parts of the Arab world, home hospice is rather new as death is normally a taboo. No one wants to talk about it, discuss the possibilities, or treat this phase as a phase to bid farewell, instead of wasting time on treatments that will most probably be very uncomfortable and painful to the patient. Terminal illness is a difficult issue, so we were not really sure how people, doctors and nurses would respond to our mission. It took us some time to get started with the training, mapping and understanding of the society. I would say our main challenge is fundraising. And this is an issue many, if not all, NGOs in Lebanon face. We have been growing steadily but are still considered a small NGO. Lebanon is rich in the number and diversity of the causes being advocated by its civil society. Getting the attention of donors, companies and individuals is not an easy task. But we’ve been working hard since the very beginning and we're approaching a safe phase where we can do some long-term planning.
You have to believe in it. You have to want to do it and do it right. Patients’ quality of life and dignity are the two most important issues we think about all the time. Everything else can develop with time, but there are no compromises when it comes to these two issues.
