The Story of Mehdi

Mehdi, who is now 26, was born and raised in Baalbek, Lebanon. He spent most of his life in this city, enjoying his childhood until he decided to register to be in the military. Once he joined the military, he trained to be a nurse. He worked in the military as a nurse for a few years, however, when the Lebanese financial system collapsed around Late October 2019, he was forced to take on other jobs to support himself and his family. Along with being a military nurse, Mehdi takes on a role as a home-bound nurse. He states that he typically works a couple of days a week as a home-bound nurse and the rest of the week as a military nurse at the hospital. Mehdi also mentioned his financial situation, stating: “My family and I don’t own a house. We have been renting a small apartment with little to no AC for a long time. Because of the financial crash, I am still living with my parents and my brother. We all chip in money to pay rent and food. I used to make $400 a month, and now it’s about $100 a month. My family and I can barely pay our monthly bills, we are in a really tight situation.” Mehdi also stated he used to eat meat 3 times a week, and now it is once a week if they are lucky. “Thank God I at least still have food on the table every night and that my money covers all my necessities, but any form of entertainment is out of the question. I cannot go to restaurants, and I can’t drive because of petrol costs. I only take the bus (dirty old vans with no AC and very small and uncomfortable seats) to go where I need to. I just hope that someday I will be financially stable on my own to be able to raise my own family.”