Egna Legna Besidet (Amharic translates to “us migrants for us migrants”) is a Lebanon based women migrant domestic worker run humanitarian and advocacy organization. We have been providing humanitarian assistance for domestic workers in Lebanon since 2017, while speaking up about the dangers and discrimination they face.
We have launched this fundraising initiative, because the disaster in Lebanon is beyond our capacity to handle. As of writing, Israel has killed over 2300 people and displaced over a million in Lebanon with its bombing campaign that remains ongoing. Migrant domestic workers from African and Asian countries are among those being displaced from their homes, forgotten by their embassies and in some cases, denied entry at shelters that don’t welcome migrants1. Our team is currently working around the clock to deliver food, mattresses, sanitary pads and other basics to domestic workers across Lebanon. But the need is high, and we need your help.
About us
Egna Legna Besidet (Amharic translates to “us migrants for us migrants”) is a women migrant domestic worker run humanitarian and advocacy organization. Founded in 2017, we launched as a small collective of Ethiopian migrant domestic workers in Beirut. Today, it is registered as a non profit in Canada and Ethiopia, and we assist migrant domestic workers of all nationalities in Lebanon. As current and former domestic workers in Lebanon, we are all victims of the kafala system, and we feel we are best equipped to assist the women whose lived experiences are the same as ours.
Our organization has a credible record on the ground. We have used funds to repatriate over 900 stranded migrant domestic workers and their children to their countries of origin since 2019. We have provided emergency relief services to tens of thousands since 2019. We have worked on awareness raising programs about the dangers of migrant work in the Middle East and the kafala system, and are a regular presence in the media, denouncing systemic abuse of our sisters. We have conducted groundbreaking research, to reveal the extent of the sexual violence migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are exposed to.2 Egna Legna Besidet has worked to empower migrant women leaders both in Lebanon and returnees in Ethiopia. We opened a vocational school in Ethiopia3 where returnee migrant domestic workers can enroll free of charge, and we remain committed to women led initiatives for a problem disproportionately affecting women. In Lebanon, where countless migrant domestic workers are detained unjustly, we have provided legal services free of charge4 and until now have cleared over 300 women earning either their release from prison, or the dropping of arrest warrants against them. Most domestic workers in the Middle East are jailed for running away from the home of abusive employers, which is a crime under the kafala system.
5Sadly, during this current crisis, major international aid organizations are not doing enough, if anything, to assist migrant domestic workers. So far, migrant domestic workers have had to rely on migrant women led organizations like ours, local Lebanese feminist organizations, and kind individuals. We need your help.
In 2020, we launched a fundraising campaign as migrant domestic workers were horribly affected by the deadly Beirut explosion, the pandemic and Lebanon’s financial crisis, which led to thousands of domestic workers losing their jobs and going homeless. We raised hundreds of thousands and used the money to provide emergency relief and shelter to as many as possible. Our emergency work during that period was covered in Al Jazeera6, CNN7, AP8 and elsewhere. Our work throughout that terrible period of crisis earned us the United Nations Humanitarian Day Award in 2023.9
We have a reputation as trusted, hardworking members of the migrant community who work for them tirelessly when most institutions let them down or worse, discriminate against them. We were there for them during previous disasters and we won’t abandon them now. But our means are limited. We are currently reallocating money that was meant for education, advocacy, awareness raising campaigns and using it to buy food and emergency supplies.
Help us serve them when no one else will. 100% of your donations will fund emergency efforts directed at displaced and affected migrant domestic workers (and their families in Lebanon), not salaries, or anything else.
We acknowledge and appreciate the support and love so many of you have given us over the years. We ask you to open your hearts to us once again.
Thank you very much!
Egna Legna Besidet,
Beirut, Lebanon.
egnalegna.org
Instagram: @egnalegna - Twitter: @egnalegnamdw - Facebook: facebook.com/EgnaLegnaBesidet/
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