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By partnering with the association “Loubnaniyoun,” the Beirut Sports Festival is allocating 4 billion Lebanese pounds to fund 80 school scholarships for students from across the country. A turning point for this sporting event, which has become, in just a few years, a heavyweight in the Lebanese calendar.
Sports are stepping into the classroom. At the Qubic Center in Horch Tabet, the president of the Beirut Sports Festival, Karim Andari, and the president of the association “Loubnaniyoun,” Nadine Daher, formalized an unprecedented partnership: 4 billion Lebanese pounds granted to the NGO to cover school fees for 80 students from various regions of Lebanon. The conference, moderated by journalist Georges Soueidi, was held in the presence of sports, military, educational and university officials, partner company representatives, and members of the press.
Karim Andari: From a Risky Idea to a Social Project
At first, the Beirut Sports Festival was just an idea that many considered “crazy” given Lebanon’s crisis. But for Karim Andari, it was an opportunity: bringing together federations, brands, families, and champions around a major popular event. Several editions later, the gamble has paid off.
The 2025 edition gathered over 247 local and international exhibitors, 24 sports federations, and more than 71,000 visitors, headlined by Brazilian football legend Roberto Carlos. “We wanted to make the Beirut Sports Festival one of the biggest sporting events in the country, and above all, a space where sports contribute to something concrete for society,” Andari said, backing his statement with figures.
Until now, the festival’s support had been focused on high-level athletes and certain successful federations. For its president, it was time to take things further. “We have always stood by athletes, but today the need is also inside the schools. Investing in youth means investing both in sports and in education,” he explained.
This is the spirit behind the Beirut Sports Festival’s decision to allocate 4 billion pounds to 80 school scholarships, entrusted to “Loubnaniyoun.” “We chose Loubnaniyoun because it is an active and serious association, present on the ground for years, and because Nadine Daher has proven her ability to turn aid into concrete results for families,” Andari emphasized.
Loubnaniyoun: Twelve Years on the Front Lines of Education
Founded in 2012, “Loubnaniyoun” describes itself as a national association active across Lebanon. Its flagship program, “Menhati” (“My Scholarship”), launched in 2013, targets families who can no longer afford to send their children to school. Since its creation, the NGO says it has supported approximately 5,500 students, many of them enrolled in low-cost private schools that have been particularly weakened by the economic collapse.
Since 2019, successive crises—protests, the pandemic, the banking crisis—have caused requests for assistance to skyrocket. Public schools are overflowing, semi-private institutions are struggling to survive, the exodus of teachers is lowering educational quality, and school dropout rates are increasing. In Loubnaniyoun’s offices, case files from distressed families pile up: sick parents, siblings where only some can attend school, children at risk of staying home or entering the workforce too early.
For Nadine Daher, the support from the Beirut Sports Festival comes at the perfect time: the subsidy, granted at the start of the academic year, immediately funded the schooling of 80 students from highly vulnerable families. “Without this support, some of these children would have simply left school,” she said.
Sports and Education: The Same Fight
Beyond the numbers, Karim Andari insists on the natural link between the festival and this type of initiative: “We cannot talk about youth, performance, and the future by limiting ourselves to athletic results. A champion without a solid education is a fragile future. Sports and school go hand in hand.”
Nadine Daher shares this vision. Echoing the famous saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body,” she highlights how physical activity helps students concentrate better, reduces stress, strengthens memory, endurance, and teamwork. For her, the partnership between the Beirut Sports Festival and Loubnaniyoun is “an example of what happens when two worlds communicate: the sports event world and the social-action world.”
The ceremony concluded with the screening of a documentary on Loubnaniyoun, the official signing of the partnership between Karim Andari and Nadine Daher, and a reception held in honor of attendees. Asked about the future, Andari already announced a rendezvous for June 2026 for the next edition of the Beirut Sports Festival, hinting that university scholarships may soon be added to the initiative.
In a Lebanon under pressure, the Beirut Sports Festival now embraces a dual identity: a major sports showcase and a concrete tool supporting education—driven by its president, determined to make the festival more than a simple show.
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