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CLFW/Project Roots' Director's Speech in California: An Invitation to Join a Noble Cause

On June 14, 2014, at a meeting  organized by Consul Johnny Ibrahim at his residence in Los Angeles, California, for Lebanese entities, including religious dignitaries, Lebanese political parties and non-profit organizations, Mrs. Nada Salem Abisamra, the director of Project Roots and the Christian Lebanese Foundation in the World (CLFW), gave the following speech:

The Christian Lebanese Foundation in the World (CLFW), which was established in Washington, DC, in November 2013, is affiliated to the Maronite Foundation in the World and has the same President, Mr. Michel Edde, and Vice President, Mr. Neemat Frem. We are now in the process of expanding our board of trustees to include people of different denominations who share our cause and objectives.

In March 2014, we formed 3 different support committees:

- A general support committee: non religious, non partisan, formed of prominent people of different denominations, from different states.

- A religious support committee: formed of representatives of the religious entities that are related to Lebanon.

- A party support committee: formed of the heads or representatives of the different Lebanese parties in the US.

And we are now in the process of forming a marketing support committee.

We are working very closely with the Lebanese embassy and consulates whose endorsement we are very grateful for. We are also working closely with the National Apostolate of Maronites (NAM) and the different Lebanese American Clubs and Organizations.

After trying to register Americans of Lebanese descent in Lebanon for more than 3 years under the Maronite Foundation and Project Roots, we have realized that, alone, we cannot accomplish much. This cause is big. It is vital. It is about our existence in Lebanon, our mother country that, despite the fact that we have left it, will always remain in our hearts in one way or another, especially since we will always be Lebanese descendants who need to be proud of their country of origin!

So, we should all fight together to preserve the Land of the Cedar, the Land of Gebran and all the great, successful, and outstanding people who represent it all over the world! We should fight to keep this land beaming with diversity, democracy, and pride. We should fight to keep the face of Lebanon the way it is, whereby all its diverse children live with openness, acceptance, and tolerance, despite the challenges our country faces... If all Lebanese descendants abroad register in Lebanon, they can help improve the future of our country! They can create a new harmony… they can become the guardians of Lebanon!

We all need to come together to preserve Lebanon's specificity: its pluralistic society, its confessional conviviality, and its cultural diversity.
We want moderation to prevail over fanaticism... and in a small country like Lebanon, demography is very important... Lebanon needs its children's confessional diversity and conviviality in order to keep on promoting moderation.

We are reaching out to you all... We want to work with you and we want to succeed together! We do not care who gets the credit: we want to win together. We want a win/win!

This weekend, we have a pilot campaign going on in 3 different states. We have teamed up with the Lebanese embassy and consulates, with the religious entities through their representatives on our committee, with all the Lebanese parties, with different Lebanese American clubs and organizations, and we hope this campaign will be successful. We want it to be a "hurricane campaign" where all the Lebanese entities in the US team up to attack specific areas and sweep off all the registrations they can get.

In September, we want to have a hurricane campaign here in LA.
We need... Not only your support... But also your participation!
We need the participation of the following entities, of course in addition to that of the consul general:
- All Lebanese religious entities
- All Lebanese parties
- All Lebanese American Clubs and Organizations
- All prominent Lebanese figures here who can affect people's opinions, sensitize them to the situation in Lebanon, hook them to our cause, and lead them, not only to register their families, but also to lead all the eligible people around them to register... In one word: mobilize them!
- And, last but not least, we also need the participation of every person who can help spread the word, distribute flyers, refer families...
On the East coast, we have hired interns for that purpose... We can do the same here.

Our children need roots to grow... We need to water their roots ... We owe it to them... And those roots are Lebanese!!

Mr. Neemat Frem wondered, in his address at the Northern Ohio American Lebanese Association (NOOLA) last November, why the Lebanese have so many individual successes and so many collective failures...

Let us work very hard together to make this noble cause our collective success!!