Who We Are:
Elias Matar founded Lighthouse Peace Initiative (LPI Corp) in 2015 as a response to the Syrian refugees crisis. LPI Corp is a volunteer platform dedicated to directing funds from private donors and corporate sponsors to coordinate efforts in providing immediate aid and creating long-term solutions to vulnerable Syrian refugees. Our team consists of people who are passionate about bein
g a part of the solution to this humanitarian crisis. Founder, Elias Matar
I had been following the Syrian refugee crisis since march 2011. Then I started running and posting my miles on social media to bring attention to the plight of the refugees. But I felt a strong calling to do more. In August of 2015, I decided to book plane ticket without a clear idea of what I would be doing. On my first night in Sid, Serbia, more than 2,000 refugees walked through a cornfield where I, along with a group of other volunteers, had set up a station offering food and water. I spent the next thirteen days traveling between Greece and Germany. I did what we could to help the refugees along the way. I listened to their stories, cried with them, gave them whatever information I had about border openings, bus and train routes and where to avoid minefields. When the refugees discovered that I spoke Arabic with a Syrian accent they felt a connection to me and shared the stories of their journey, the loss of loved ones, and their hope against all odds for a better future. It was here that I learned of refugees crossing the Aegean Sea along with the horrific stories that accompanied them. I knew that I needed to meet this beast of a sea in order to complete my journey. So in December 2015, I boarded a plane and headed back. This time to Greece and Turkey. I spent late December and early January on the island of Chios, Greece, working with international volunteers at the CHIOS EASTERN SHORE RESCUE TEAM. Our mission was to distribute food, water, blankets and relief kits to the refugees as they landed on the island, and to ultimately prepare them for the next leg of their journey. In June of 2016, I traveled to Lebanon to join Salam LADC. We helped to purchase and distribute food to the refugees in the informal settlements, as well as work in conjunctions with UNHCR, Humanwire and Teachers Without Borders to educate children while we were there and set up long-term education solutions. We also assisted in covering basic living needs for new arrivals and paying uncovered medical bills from UNHCR for the refugees. The Bekaa Valley has had a massive impact on me. It’s been very hard to go back to our “normal life” and not think of these children. The world has turned its’ back on these people in their time of need, in what is one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in our time. Although we were only 24 volunteers, in the end, we delivered more than 17 tons food. But still this is only a teardrop in an ocean of need. My experience in the Beqaa Valley, living among the refugees, is the reason I have formed LPI Corp.
