The Peace Centres

Our first Peace Centre opened in July 2013 in Bkarzla, a Maronite village 12 km from the Syrian border that had given shelter and work to Syrian refugees. We were happy there for twelve years. When many families prepared to return to Syria, we moved to the neighbouring village of Qantara, where the public school and the old house opposite it had become vacant. The move was practical, but it also expressed a conviction: our presence in Akkar is not temporary.

The Peace Centre is more than a guest house. The international volunteers who live there form a small community of their own, open to all, that tries to live spiritual solidarity in practice. They do not only live in diversity but share it, and discover the Abrahamic hospitality that has marked this region for centuries, above all in its poor rural villages. Practising Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus have lived and worked with us, as well as atheists, agnostics and people of other convictions.

Children and adolescents of every confession, Lebanese and Syrian, come to the Peace Centre for classes, psychosocial support and material help. We chose a safe place in nature so that children marked by war have room to breathe.

Over the years we opened further camp schools and learning centres in places across Akkar that reflect the diversity of the region, some as permanent branches rented by R&R, others as guests of local associations. On average we hold classes in five learning centres. Our local teachers and international volunteers have taught every day, without missing a single school day, even in times of crisis and war. We also distributed emergency aid to newly arrived refugees, and we still help families with their most urgent needs.

After more than a decade of war, the Syrian people freed their country from dictatorship, but the Assad regime left a field of ruins behind. The largest refugee crisis of this century is coming to an end. In 2025 we returned to Syria with the families we had served since 2013 in North Lebanon and through our cross-border aid. In December 2025 we founded the Syrian branch of our organisation and rented a space in Tell Nabi Mendo, the ancient city of Kadesh on the Orontes river.

Peace Centre Kadesh opened its doors at the beginning of 2026. Three of our seven local teachers worked with us in Lebanon before; the others survived in the ruins of war or came back from displacement inside Syria. As on the Lebanese side, the region has been mixed for centuries, with a Sunni majority living alongside Christians, Alawites and other communities.

Families who return face enormous challenges. 85% of the houses in the Qusayr area are uninhabitable, there is hardly any income, and reconstruction has barely begun. We are now preparing the centre so that international volunteers can join the team here too.