ROME: The Order of Malta, a Rome-based Catholic religious order founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century, has inaugurated a community health center near Beirut.
The St. John the Baptist Community Health Center is made up of three floors dedicated to primary healthcare free of charge or at a symbolic fee for those in need. It is expected to receive up to 500 patients per day.
Medical specialties provided include general medicine, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, oncology, mental health, neurodegenerative diseases and lab tests.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by representatives of Christian and Muslim religious communities in Lebanon, as well as Public Health Minister Firass Abiad, Apostolic Envoy Josef Spiteri and German MPs, whose government partly funded the center.
A common prayer was recited by Maronite Archbishop of Beirut Boulos Abdel Sater and Druze Sheikh Sami Abdel Khalek.
Abiad thanked the Order of Malta, saying: “I’m pleased to see the complementarity between primary healthcare and secondary hospital care materialize.”
The Order of Malta has diplomatic relations with over 100 states and the EU, and has permanent observer status at the UN.
It is neutral and apolitical, and is active in 120 countries, providing medical, social and humanitarian aid for people in need.
