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College des Soeurs des Saints Coeurs - Hadat

This aid project started in May 2023 and is still ongoing.
Scroll through the text for the latest update on the progress.

If you would also like to help, please donate your contribution manually to bank account number:
SWIFT-/BIC-code: ABNANL2A If your system asks for it, add 'XXX' to an 8-digit code (e.g. ABNANL2AXXX).
NL71 ABNA 0118 7463 91 payable to Stichting VVL, veteranen voor Libanon

Update September 2026

By Bart Timmermans

The last visit to Hadat dates back to November 2025, the situation has unfortunately not improved in the meantime, the travel advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains dark red: do not travel if not absolutely necessary. Grinding our teeth, we have to wait and our project is delayed. Some adjustments/expansions simply cannot be realized remotely.

What has been taken up and implemented in the meantime by Eliane (IT), Fady (IT teacher) and Charbel (building management)?

Image: SSCC Hadat buildings

Wifi network:
After my last visit, Eliane and Charbel went all out and rolled out about 27 wifi Access Points in the 2 education buildings B and C in a few weeks. Think of drilling holes through walls, mounting cable ducts on walls and ceilings, pulling and assembling cables, etc.
The first Wi-Fi Access Points were already configured by default, but Eliane noticed unwanted use, so security had to be tightened up a bit. For now, MAC address registration as an extension. Once the new server has arrived, we can start using Active Directory to work on the basis of username/password) and give users, students, teachers and staff specific access to the network based on policies. And all this via the same SSID (wifi name).

Image of administrators wifi dashboard

Power supply:
The power supply and available UPS capacity per (educational) building differ from each other, which means that there are sometimes power failures in one building and not in another. The network is currently not yet redundant, which may result in a power failure in building A (administration) causing the network connection between buildings B and C, which currently runs through building A, to be broken.

The Aruba Access Points in building B suffered from this because they no longer had access to the internet. As a result, you are then connected to Wi-Fi but do not get internet access, annoying and confusing for users. We cannot solve this yet, but in a next visit this will be given a high priority. Then redundancy is built into the network in the form of a fiber optic ring in combination with UPS (small battery) in network cabinets so that a malfunction in the ring can be successfully absorbed. Users will then notice little or nothing of a malfunction.

Netwerk switches:
At the moment, the education buildings (B and C) are fully equipped with new switches, as can be read in my previous report. The next step will be to expand switch (port) capacity, centralize switches in 19" cabinets and connect redundantly to the fiber optic ring, bring equipment and cabling that is still hanging in the open air inside and further expand the WiFi network according to the network design.

Building A:
This 'administration' building and accommodation of various nuns is still a challenge. As far as is known, 2 internet connections on the roof come in here. From the roof, the internet is then distributed to the three buildings. An important junction but not yet equipped with a UPS. Power failures in this building therefore immediately shut down the internet, which is not desirable. Furthermore, the cabling here is very outdated and sometimes in poor condition. The equipment on the roof has to go inside, etc. etc.

Container:
The container that is currently on its way again contains equipment and cabling to help the school further. We can do this partly remotely, but partly it requires our help and expertise on location.
Let's hope it will soon be quiet again and we will be off again kunnen reizen naar Libanon.

November 2025

After two and a half years, the travel advisory was lowered from red to orange, and it was finally safe to travel to Lebanon again. SSCC Hadat was high on my wish list, especially after my previous visit in May 2023.
Together with Bert, Jeannet, Charles and Georges, we were very warmly welcomed on Tuesday 18 November by Sister Labibé and her management team, including all the heads of the various departments. It felt good to be back and able to take the next steps.

There are jobs to be done at SSCC Hadat.
The first person I spoke to was Sister Rita, who was now working in Morocco. Luckily, there was a new IT manager, Eliane Bejjani. We went on another tour of the school with her and Pascalle to get a first impression. It turned out that not much had changed or improved. The internet connection was still poor. Problems with exchanging files, not having a local network server, and poor network infrastructure were seen as major limitations. So there was work to be done!

There are internet connections on the roof.

The work was scheduled for 27 and 28 November. Andre picked me up at 8:00 a.m. and we drove through the busy streets of Beirut to get to SSCC Hadat at 8:30 a.m. We started with a session on a whiteboard. I tried to picture what the IT infrastructure currently looks like and where we want to go.

You can only believe what you can see.
The whiteboard session was stopped a few times so that we could check how the cabling and other things are installed. Once again, there were lots of surprising moments; we didn't expect what was going to happen.

There are two internet providers. The first uses a point-to-point connection, which means a dish on the roof is aimed at the provider's dish. This delivers the internet signal wirelessly. Drones can cause this connection to be very unreliable, and other drones can also jam them. The signal used for this also disrupts the internet connection, meaning it is regularly unusable.

It takes a long time to work out how connections work.

The other internet connection comes in via fibre optic cable (surprisingly) and is therefore more stable. Please note that we are talking about a 5 megabyte upload/download speed here.

The cabling has been made better.
It took quite a while to work out how the cabling was connected. At first, it was thought that the three buildings were connected to each other wirelessly. But this was later found to be an old connection that was not being used. It now seems that fibre optic cables have been stretched between the buildings, from rooftop to rooftop. Of the two fibres in these cables, only one appears to have been used, which is good news for setting up a local network! The use of old, cheap hardware (max. 100 Mb) means that gigabit speeds cannot be achieved locally (LAN). Once we have replaced this equipment with HP switches that are being managed, we will be able to achieve gigabit speeds in terms of how fast the core network is. This feels good.

There are lots of network cables running from the roof to the floor and then down to the lower floors, and they go through the window frame. Standard network cabling is not good enough for this, and we can see that too: cables are in poor condition, torn or cracked in all kinds of places. We would like to put the cables in the building through cable ducts, but we have decided to replace only the worst cables. There is simply no time to do anything else at the moment, as the school activities must continue, of course.

The computer classrooms have been improved.
The computer classroom in building C (Complementary) is set up in a U-shape, with tables against the wall and a few tables in the middle. The cables here are old and in bad condition. The 19 computers are connected to a hub that can handle 100 Mb. Eliane and Fady, the IT teachers, say that they want the tables to be set up like they are in a normal classroom, with three rows of tables facing the whiteboard. We decided to replace all the cabling, install a 19-inch rack and upgrade everything to gigabit speed.

The computer classroom in building B (Secondary) has the correct layout, but most of the cabling here is also CAT5, while CAT5e is the minimum standard. We decided to replace most of the old cabling (75%).

Map of the main network and server room.
We will use the room next to the computer room as the main network location in this building.

This is how things were before.

We want to install a 19-inch rack here to house switches, patch panels and a new Windows 2022 Server. Unfortunately, the rack is too big to fit through the door. But don't worry, Charbel, who is in charge of looking after the building, quickly decides to take out the whole door frame so that the rack can be brought in.

Wow, that was done in just 15 minutes!
We could carry on, but it's now 7 p.m. and time to go back to SSCC Bauchrieh to eat and sleep.

SSCC Bauchrieh is here to help.
The next day, I am joined by my good friend Hagop Keork, who works as an IT engineer at SSCC Bauchrieh, to help with replacing the cables. We are picked up at 7:30 a.m. and work on it all day.
I found some worrying things, like a network cable that had been cut and then two 2-wire cables (of the eight) were connected to 230V (!) to power a Wi-Fi transmitter adapter on the other side of the cable.

Extremely dangerous! This does make PoE (Power over Ethernet) better! Anyway, we can't finish the job because more needs to be replaced than we thought. During the day, Fady and Eliane provide us with delicious food, and at 11 p.m. we head back to SSCC Bauchrieh.

This is what it looks like at the end:
On Saturday, we will finish everything. The network is working again and is now very fast and reliable.

Eliane and I will carry on setting up and getting Windows 2022 Server ready from a distance next week. The first Aruba Wi-Fi access points are now working, and Eliane, Fady and Charbel will continue to set up more Wi-Fi access points in the coming weeks. We are happy to say that we have also been able to provide Wi-Fi in the conference room, which seats around 100 people. This was something that people had been wanting for a long time.
The conference room has Wi-Fi.

Sister Labibé comes to see the finished result and is very pleased with it. We, Eliane, Fady, Charbel, Hagop and I, would like to thank you for your help. I say goodbye feeling very satisfied. Later, I receive a very nice thank-you message. Well done!

The team

Written by Bart Timmermans

December 2023
We received the following photos from Beirut via Mirjam Polak.

The last container of November 2023 had lots of projectors and whiteboards in it.
These were sent to the College des Soeurs des Saints Coeurs school in Hadat, as well as other places.
A lot of hard work has been done in the meantime and various projectors and whiteboards have been installed. The school is very happy with this renovation and thanks the donors...

29 december 2023
In November, the last container was unloaded. It contained lots of materials for the school.
The first delivery of aid for the school has now arrived, and Sister Labibie Moubarak and Mirjam have collected the items.
There were lots of things like projectors, whiteboards, notebooks, toys and other useful materials.
Unfortunately, we are not yet able to help with the installation of the projectors, whiteboards and notebooks because of the problems in southern Lebanon.
Luckily, they have taken the first step.
We will go there as soon as we can to do the work.

May 19, 2023
Our new aid project is for a school in Beirut called SSCC Hadat - College des Soeurs des Saints Coeurs.
During his work on our other school project, SSCC Bauchrieh, Bart also found time to visit the SSCC Hadat school.
Bart visited the school with Mirjam Polak, the person who started the tour, and Sister Rita.

The school has over 850 children, so it is much smaller than most schools and has fewer classrooms.
Bart checked the computers they have now, but also the ones they don't have.
There are also not many outdoor toys for the youngest children.
For example, there are no football nets to attach around the goalposts.

There is a shortage of everything

On the basis of the inventoried data, we are working hard in the background to obtain computers, notebooks and relevant materials from our sponsors. At the moment we have already been able to collect a lot of material such as; projectors, whiteboards, 75" television screens, notebooks, and more.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who sponsored us, including those who chose to remain anonymous.
We hope that the firstlot for the SSCC Hadat together with the other relief supplies can be sent soon with the next container.