Six-year-old Rosalie from Lebanon is inquisitive; she wants to attend school regularly, demonstrate what she has learned, and keep up with her peers. However, she lacks something fundamental to register for school exams: she has never been registered with any authority; she has neither a birth certificate nor a child’s identity card. The crises that have shaken Lebanon in recent years presented her parents with particular challenges: they were so preoccupied with securing their livelihoods that they neglected this crucial step of bureaucracy.

Rosalie and her eleven-year-old sister Rose-Mary play with a gift brought by the “Flamme de Charité” team for Rose-Mary’s birthday. The two girls also have a 15-year-old brother named Robert. © FdC

“We want to help her obtain her official identity documents and thus secure one of the most fundamental human rights for her,” Penelope Boujaoude wrote in an email to the ISHR on November 6, 2025. The Lebanese Christian woman co-founded the charity “Flamme de Charité” in 2020. Since then, she and her team have helped more than 200 families through difficult times, whether with subsidies for housing or medical treatment, vouchers for everyday necessities, or funding for education, because many Lebanese have lost their savings and even their livelihoods in recent years.

“The consequences of not being officially registered are enormous: Without official documents, she not only cannot graduate from school or attend university, but she can also never find legal work or rent an apartment. Her dream: to be baptised and have her name recognised – but even that is impossible without identification papers,” Boujaoude continues.

It is no longer easy to register her retroactively: High additional fees are incurred, particularly for the DNA test required to definitively prove her parentage. Rosalie’s problem is not an isolated case in Lebanon. States that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child have committed themselves in Article 7 to ensuring the registration of every child at birth. Specifically, this means that, for example, maternity clinics are required to notify the authorities and issue a birth certificate. Lebanon ratified the document in 1991, but to date, no agency has inquired about Rosalie.

Consideration is being given to a contribution of €5,000 to “Flamme de Charité” in support of their assistance to families in need. The funds, if provided, would cover Rosalie’s DNA test and administrative costs.