Each of the American-run orphanages to which they were sent has its own history. Here we shall content ourselves with providing a brief overview.32
• Jbeil (Byblos). This American orphanage, founded in October 1920, was home to some one thousand children, most of whom had formerly been wards of the orphanage in Aintab. Its director was R. P. Travis, who was later replaced by his Danish assistant, Miss Peterson. The institution was closed in 1925 and the young-est orphans were transferred to the orphanage in Sidon.
• Nahr Ibrahim. This NER orphanage, opened in spring 1923 after the children in the American organization’s institutions in Konya and Kayseri were evacuated to Lebanon, cared for some one thousand children. They were lodged in build-ings on the river banks (“Nahr” means river). The Nahr Ibrahim orphanage, directed by Stanley Kerr, an American, was rather hard hit by malaria. In 1924, its four hundred surviving wards were transferred to the orphanage in Jbeil.
• Ghazir. In 1919, Americans established an orphanage reserved for Lebanese children here. The Lebanese orphans were transferred to Sidon in 1922, after which the institution was put under the direction
of Jakob Künzler, who admitted some one thousand Armenian orphans, most of them evacuees from Urfa. An important rug-making workshop in the Ghazir orphanage employed many adolescent girls. In 1925, a school for the blind was also opened in Ghazir.
• Ma’meltein. NER founded an orphanage for boys in this town in 1922. It was directed by T. W. Gannaway. Four hundred twenty-five children learned a trade here. The institution remained in operation for only one year. The other American orphanage in Ma’meltein, reserved for very small children, was closed in 1924. The building was converted into a sanatorium. Read all
The AGBU's Orphanages in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus
View of the orphanage in Jbeil (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).