São Paulo – Lebanon now has a council of Brazilian residents. The group was officially established on Monday (16th), in Beirut, and should provide support to the Brazilians living in the Arab country. “The mission of the Council of Brazilian Citizens to Beirut (CCBB) is to be a bridge for communication between the Consulate General of Brazil in Lebanon and Brazilians residing in the country, and vice versa,” explained Brazilian writer and researcher Roberto Khatlab, who lives in Lebanon and should be the executive secretary at the council.
The establishment of the council is an initiative by the Consul General of Brazil in Lebanon, Michael Geep, who should be the permanent president of the group. The group has eight Brazilian members who live in the eight regions of the Lebanese territory, according to information provided by Khatlab. The official inauguration of the council, on Monday, took place at the Consulate General of Brazil in Lebanon, at which the consul general, Luis Eduardo Pedroso, was also present.
“The consul general, after experiencing the 2006 summer war and the enormous work for evacuation of the Brazilians in Lebanon – over three thousand people were successfully evacuated -, saw the need for fortifying a direct line of communications with the Brazilians living in Lebanon to face any difficulty they may come to have, as well as to keep the community informed of news from the Consulate General,” said Khatlab.
There are several councils of Brazilian citizens all around the world. They were launched in 1997, as an initiative of the federal government, and follow the guidelines of the Consular Legal Services Manual of the Ministry of Foreign Relations. However, the council in Lebanon has statutes, describing its competences, determining that the activities will not be remunerated and will also not be political, religious or ideological.
Apart from Khatlab, also present were councillors Creuza Maria Vieira Marques Zaim, José Romanos, Khaled Haymour, Maria Aparecida Vitt Hijazi, Osmat Chafrafeddine, Ramez Labaki and Toni Kaddissi. The group chose Khatlab to be the executive secretary. In the first meeting, apart from the empowering and approval of the statutes, Khatlab also presented the results of the talks of the 2nd Brazilians Worldwide Conference, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in October, in which he participated.
“The initial target of the CCBB is to provide incentives for Brazilians to register at the consulate for greater knowledge of the number of Brazilians residing in Lebanon and also preparation for registration and re-registration of voting cards for the 2010 elections. The president plans to organise meetings with Brazilians, in each region, to form a united community and remain informed about Brazil,” said Khatlab.
*Translated by Mark Ament
