2/2 “I could never admit that I was an addict until that horrible incident. I had returned to Lebanon after graduation and one weekend, I went to the mountains to a rave with my friends. I was supposed to go with my girlfriend but she was so fed up with my addiction that she broke up with me. At the party I saw her kissing another man. I was hallucinating and in my mind she was looking at me while kissing him. After four days of partying and using drugs without any sleep or food I was exhausted. I tried to find my friend who I left my car keys with but I could not find her. When I called she said that she was already back in Beirut. I asked her to come back to bring the keys but she refused. Never before did I experience such a deep sense of loneliness. I started to cry so intensely and everyone who passed by started to cry as well. There I was, an addict, alone without any help from my friends, without my girlfriend. I ordered a cab, who brought me my car keys. I went straight to my mother’s house and I said to her: ‘’I am not leaving the house until we find a rehab.’’ It was the first time I admitted that I was an addict. The next day I quit my job and I went to a rehab in the mountains. I went to rehab for 1 year and 3 months and for the first time I started to mourn my father. I started to talk about my feelings and everything I had been through. Slowly I got my life back on track. I am now an art director and I love my job. I still go to weekly meetings organized by the rehab. I can not describe how thankful I am. I got a second chance to life.”

½ ‘’As a kid I was never allowed to play outside. My parents were always afraid something bad would happen to me. There was not much to do at home but play video games. That is how I developed a gaming addiction. When I turned 12, my dad passed away. Instead of mourning my father, I suddenly felt this immense freedom. For the first time in my life I could just leave the house and come back home when ever I wanted. At the time, I was really into metal and I had long hair and piercings. At school I was bullied a lot. At 17, I graduated high school and I went to Cyprus to study graphic design, a huge passion of mine. One night, I went to see a friend and he offered me to smoke a joint. I thought we were smoking weed but it turned out it was another, much stronger drugs called K2. After one week I was completely addicted. During the next four years all I did was use drugs. At some point I even became a dealer myself. Everyone knew me but nobody really knew me. Everyone wanted something from me but nobody was my friend.“

‘’I was 22 when I became a widow. Our daughter was only a baby when he passed away. I think that was the worst time of my life. We were in the midst of the war and I was going through a deep depression while I needed to take care of my child. To make some extra cash I would rent out a room in my house. One day, 3 years after my husband died I was on the beach staring into the sea when I got a vision. I felt such a strong connection to the waves. I realized that the sea was trying to tell me something. The next day I felt a strong urge to go fishing. I caught quite some fish and I sold it to the nearby restaurants. Every day I would go back to the sea to fish. I fell in love with fishing and I was earning enough money to provide for my daughter. I did that for twelve years. People would ask me: ‘’why don’t you just sell the fish directly to the people?’’ So one day, I bought two tables and I put them on my terrace in front of my house. People knew about me so every time more and more customers would come. I invested all my savings into my terrace. Everything you see here, I build with my own hands and my own money. Every winter the terrace gets damaged by the waves. Sometimes people ask me if that upsets me. Of course it doesn’t. How can the sea upset me? It has given me life.’’
(Batroun, Lebanon)

3/3’‘I am so blessed because despite of everything I married the love of my life. We have three children and two grandchildren. Having a disability here in Lebanon is not easy. There is still a lot of prejudice and many public facilities are still unaccessible for people in wheelchairs and other disabilities. I even advise the local authorities on matters concerning the disabled. However, I am still very optimistic about the future. I taught myself how to read and write. I even wrote two books about my life. I learned that in life it is not about what happens to you but how you respond to it.“
(Beirut, Lebanon)

2/3 “I have always been really insecure about dating. I have always wanted to find my other half but I felt that with one arm, I can not offer a woman what she deserves. I can’t even give her a full hug because I only have one arm to hold her. One day I was walking down the street and I saw a girl with long wavy hair and a beautiful nose. She agreed to go out with me. After a while she introduced me to her parents. They did not accept me. They asked her how she could even consider a boy with one arm that was selling newspapers. Instead of listening to her parents she defended me. She said that all she cared about was that I am a good person. The way she defended me, right there in front of her own parents made me realize that she was the one that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
(Beirut, Lebanon)

1/3‘’At sixteen, I was working with my dad in our wood workshop when I got into an accident and I lost my arm. I come from a very poor family so I never had a proper education. I never learned how to read or write. When I lost my arm, I had no diploma to fall back on. During the war there was a great demand for newspapers so I became a newspaper boy. Every day I would finish my shift at 4PM and then I would study the paper of that day. I wanted to be able to read about the things everybody was talking about. I would study word for word. That way, I taught myself how to read and write.“
(Beirut, Lebanon)