“The Coronavirus lockdown and everything that followed it got the best part of my dreams and my joy”.
Malak Chankich
17 years old
Lebanese
Tripoli (North Lebanon)
“I never understood why there is this difference between girls and boys. We are four kids at home, three girls and a boy. The boy is the youngest. He is 8 years old and we are forbidden to give him remarks. My mom lets him scream at home and do whatever pleases him and she doesn’t say anything to him. She tells us all the time, ‘he’s the only boy, let him do what he wants.’. But I give him remarks even though my mom doesn’t want to. There shouldn’t be a difference between a girl and a boy”.
“Every day I think about how our life has changed with the Coronavirus, the confinement, the fact that it is impossible for us to go to school, and the fact that we need more and more money.”
“Before the Coronavirus, my mother, for example, would let me prepare a meal on my own in the evening, something that made me happy. This is no longer the case. For months, we have only eaten twice a day, either breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner. And often some ingredients are missing from the recipe. With the economic crisis affecting Lebanon, it has become impossible for us to eat properly. Everything has become expensive, rice, lentils, vegetables, meat”.
“I used to enjoy making a sandwich or a good meal at night in front of the TV, which is not the case anymore. Everyone around me is facing the same problems. Everyone has got poorer”.
“The Coronavirus lockdown and everything that followed it got the best part of my dreams and my joy. I was among the first at school. I was doing very well. Now I don’t even know if I can go to class again. My parents can no longer afford it even though I am in a public school. They are unable to pay the very little fee of any public school. We’ll see, maybe at the end of this month things will change and I would be able to go to school again; I really hope so! My mother insists that we continue our studies. But everything is so difficult for us now.”