The Association for the Care of People with Epilepsy in Lebanon was established in 2001. The services the association has provided to date are based on assessing the socio-economic status of people with epilepsy on an individual basis. Of the total number of people with epilepsy the association has researched, 500 receive support in one way or another (medical check-ups, laboratory tests, medication and health and social support services). Twenty-one (21) people with epilepsy receive free monthly medical check-ups, medication and laboratory tests.

The association targets people with epilepsy living throughout Lebanon, since the Association for the Care of People with Epilepsy in Lebanon is the only such association in the country. However, most of those people with epilepsy that the association supports reside mainly in the city and suburbs of Sidon, the capital of South Lebanon. To provide the association’s services, there are 30 active members who care for people with epilepsy and six staff members whose job is mainly to train people with epilepsy to perform manual tasks in the workshop that the association opened in 2008.

For this year’s Promising Strategy, the initiative of the Association for the Care of People with Epilepsy will come as good news to all those with a sweet tooth! The ECAL project is a chocolate making workshop that will also teach chocolate moulding and wrapping. The project is open to people with epilepsy and to anyone else interested in learning the craft of the chocolate maker.

Once the techniques of chocolate making have been mastered, the chocolates produced at the workshop will be sold to generate income for the chocolate makers. Some of the profits will also be used to support people with epilepsy who come from poor backgrounds.

The project will receive US$5,000 from the Promising Strategies Program.