Amel is a non-profit organisation. Its objectives are health programmes, psychological support, rural development, vocational training, the protection of children and the promotion of human rights. Amel was founded in 1979 by Dr. Kamel Mohanna and a team of activists, including the Aragonese Angelina Elbacha, teachers, doctors and journalists, in response to the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, in 1978, which caused many deaths and the displacement of a large part of the population. The main objective is to help build lasting peace, promoting measures that strengthen civil society at national and regional level, and affirming the rights and needs of the population. It coordinates twenty-seven hospital centres, three field hospitals, thirty ambulances and a large civil protection team, and also helps people with physical disabilities caused by war.
With its roots in disadvantaged areas, it has gained people’s confidence, employing thousands of people in programmes to promote human rights and dialogue between communities. Amel is currently operating in the poorest areas of Lebanon (the southern suburbs of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa valley, and southern Lebanon).
Dr. Kamel Mohanna
Dr. Mohanna was born in a village in southern Lebanon in 1943. He qualified as a doctor in medicine at the University of Tours (France); he is a specialist in paediatrics (University of Grenoble) and a lecturer in paediatrics at the Faculty of Public Health of the Lebanese University (UL). He is Secretary General of the Collective Administration of NGOs in Lebanon and a member of the Higher Health Council in Lebanon. He has been awarded the Prize of the French Senate and the Arab Forum Prize (2006) and was condecorated by the Order of Lebanese Doctors (Beirut, June 2000). Other distinctions he has received include Lebanese Man of the Year (2002), Knight of the National Order of the Cedar, Knight of the Legion of Honour (France, 1997) and Lebanese Order of Merit, Committee for Peace (Lebanon, 1995).
LiberPress Association Award 2010
The LiberPress Associations Award was bestowed on Amel for its effective, untiring humanitarian work for the most disadvantaged members of society, especially in the poor suburbs and rural areas of Lebanon; for its great medical and hospital work, and for its determined struggle for and brave defence of human rights.