The alumni chose it, the parents asked for it, and the whole community is behind it: one project, one hundred thousand dollars, one clear deadline. This is where the school starts, so this is where we start — the first project of many.
News about the Nazareth college in Beirut has unsettled many people, and Kfarzeina has been named in the same breath. Our school has answered it plainly: it is not concerned by that project. But uncertainty spreads on its own, and families choose a school long before anyone corrects a rumour. The answer is not silence, it is a school visibly alive and modern: renovated rooms, teaching that keeps up with the times, a live enrolment campaign, and hundreds of alumni standing openly behind it.
Alumni of Nazareth Kfarzeina, from the 1970s to today, reconnected around one school.
A community that lasts, and keeps giving back long after any single project.
A foundation for the school’s future, not a one-off effort.
Nazareth Kfarzeina was built by people who gave it their lives. This is the story we are protecting.
The school belongs to the Religieuses de Nazareth, a French Catholic teaching congregation founded on 3 May 1822 at Montléan, near Montmirail, in the years after the Revolution. Three people shaped it: Madame de Doudeauville, who restored the old convent and gave the project its impulse; the Jesuit Père Pierre Roger, who gave the community its spirit and its Constitutions; and Élisabeth Rollat, its first sister and superior. The name Nazareth was chosen to echo the poor, humble, hidden life of the Holy Family, and the mission was, and remains, teaching and Christian education. Rome granted the institute its decree of praise on 27 September 1861, under Pope Pius IX.
From France the sisters spread to the Holy Land, to Nazareth, Haïfa, Acca and Shfaram, and reached Lebanon in 1868. In Beirut they opened the Collège Notre-Dame de Nazareth in Achrafieh, whose first classes began in 1873, and it grew into one of the country’s landmark schools. Kfarzeina followed in the 1950s. Two Lebanese schools carry the name, and the two are often confused.
Achrafieh, first classes in 1873. French-accredited and long-established, a landmark of the capital, mixed today. This is the one most people find first.
A distinct school in Kfarzeina, Zgharta, in North Lebanon, serving its own community. Same spirit and congregation, its own place and story.
The congregation has grown small, fewer than 25 sisters worldwide and only six in Lebanon, and it is consolidating. Its flagship Beirut college has been reported at risk of sale, and the future of the Kfarzeina school has been raised alongside it. Protecting and renewing Kfarzeina is exactly what this alumni initiative sets out to do.
From 1953 to today, the chefs d’établissement and directrices whose portraits hang in the school’s corridor. The line opens in 1981, the years most of us remember; scroll back for those who came before, and tap a face for the years.
Photographs kept by the school and its alumni. Use the arrows to flip through them.
From the school's albums, Kfarzeina
A class and its list of names, written by hand
Mass at the school chapel
An outing, waiting by the bus
The village and the first sisters
Sisters of Nazareth
The school and its arcades
The building in its early years
A ceremony in the courtyard
The little ones of the maternelle
A visit, and the sisters welcoming it
In the schoolyard
Sisters at prayer
Three pupils in the courtyard
The whole school togetherOver the past decade the school, founded in 1953, has grown its facilities, modernised its teaching, preserved its financial independence, and kept its promise to raise students in mind and heart, steered throughout by its principal, Sœur Gloria Douaihy. What follows is not one person’s account of ten years, but what the school itself has become.
What a sister wrote to a leaving pupil, with the school drawn from the courtyard.
Pour que tu te rappelles toujours, Norma, que c’est dans ces murs que tu as grandi, et que c’est dès maintenant, jour après jour, que tu dois mettre tout ton cœur, tout ton effort à y progresser, à y devenir la femme pleine de qualités que tu dois être un jour.— Sœur Richa…, in an alumna’s autograph book
So that you always remember it was inside these walls that you grew up — and that from now on, day after day, you must put your whole heart into becoming the woman you are meant to be. The drawing beside it is the school as the sisters saw it from the courtyard, buildings that are still standing.
A school built on one belief: that every student is a precious trust, raised as a full human being and citizen, in mind and heart.
Where this history comes from, and the news that makes it urgent.
An alumni-led plan that starts where families first arrive, the preschool, and works on every front that brings them back and keeps them.
Ecole Nazareth Kfarzeina once taught more than 1,400 children. Today the preschool, where families first meet the school, sits near 100. A decade without renewal, and better-marketed schools nearby, are drawing families away, and the decline compounds year after year. The problem has three parts, and each maps to one of our pillars.
Worn flooring and dim, uninviting lighting make rooms that don’t support learning, and raise real safety concerns.
No content and no marketing strategy that honours the school’s history, while nearby schools with strong marketing pull families across.
Professional development has begun, but it must be continuous for teachers, and results, to keep improving.
What parents in the area tell us, and what the campaign has to answer.
Others have invested in their buildings, their equipment and their image, and parents see the difference on a first visit.
Some move out of the area, or prefer to school their children where they now work and live.
Parents increasingly look for a strong English track alongside French, and choose the school they believe delivers it.
Younger families are drawn to schools that look modern and are no longer run by sisters, even where the teaching is no better.
As the preschool becomes a place families choose again, enrolment grows back toward the 300 to 400 children it once held, refilling the lower grades and lifting the whole school with them.
Renovation alone will not reverse the decline. Four interrelated pillars work together: modernise the space, tell the school’s story, strengthen the teaching, and bring the community together, each one making the others count.
Renew the preschool’s first floor.
A two-year campaign to bring families back.
Keep classrooms strong as they fill.
Events that rally the network and honour donors.
The design proposed by SJY Architects, the same spaces, transformed. Drag each handle to compare.
Before: the preschool today · After: the SJY Architects proposal.
We raise and spend it section by section: each bucket below is its own part of the plan, funded and accounted for separately, from the renovation works to marketing, training and the outreach events.
An earlier Class-A quote put the renovation alone near $97,000. Pro-bono design and alumni-led oversight roughly halve it, so infrastructure is capped near $50,000 and the other half funds the work that makes the renewal last.
Tap a pillar to see what it covers.
Gypsum ceilings with concealed lighting for a bright, modern feel.
Cracks fixed; walls and fair faced concrete repainted in warm colour.
Acoustic vinyl in the classrooms plus mosaic tiling, durable and safe.
All ceiling fixtures and accessories renewed.
Doors refurbished and reinstalled; old tiling and rubble cleared.
Shop drawings, BOQ and specifications included by the architect.
Delivery ≈ 90 days once funded · payment 80% on start, 20% on installation.
The alumni who went on to medicine, law, engineering and the arts, the academic results, the community impact, the proof the school delivers.
Commission a videographer and photographer, styled shoots, short films and social content that show the school at its best.
A sustained campaign to local families across three fronts, the school as a whole, the nursery and preschool, and the results that convince parents.
Commission an education consultant across two years to deliver ongoing professional development for the teaching staff, so classrooms stay strong and modern as enrolment grows. It keeps the quality high once the rooms fill again, and it is what turns a one-off renovation into lasting improvement.
Gatherings, reunions and small dinners that keep the campaign moving and turn the network into pledges.
A dinner at the school with a chef and catering, staging and setup, and trophies and a podium to recognise the founding donors and alumni.
The plan runs in three horizons, each with a clear, measurable result, so supporters, educators and families can all see it is built to work, not just to spend.
| Horizon | What it covers | The outcome we're after | How we'll know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short termthe 100 days | Fundraise and mobilise, the task force, committees and network get to work | The campaign is fully funded and ready to start | $100,000 raised across 50 gifts, contractor engaged |
| Medium term~1 year in | Deliver the four pillars: renovation works, marketing, training and outreach | A renovated preschool, a live enrolment campaign, teachers in development | First floor handed over, the two-year campaign running, PD underway |
| Long termyears 2 to 3 | Grow the uptake, families choosing the school again | Enrolment climbs and the school fills | Preschool back toward 300+, registrations rising across the school |
Network, Talent and Treasure. Every one of us can give at least one of the three, and the school needs all three.
Give at the level that’s right for you. Each tier leaves its own lasting mark at the reopened school.
What alumni have pledged so far, gift by gift.
Prefer to dedicate your gift? An olive tree or a classroom can carry the name of a parent, a teacher who shaped you, or someone you’ve lost. Share with us how you’d like to be remembered, and it can be discussed with the executive committee.
Ask about a dedication →Three simple steps, from your pledge to the celebration.
The fundraising window runs 100 days, from Monday 12 October to Tuesday 19 January. Here is where we stand, and what comes next.
Marketing and teacher development carry on through 2027–2028. The whole point is a strong start to the next academic year: the renovation is the visible part, and these two pillars keep running right through the year that follows, bringing families back and keeping the classrooms strong as they fill.
Pledge at any tier, or tell us you'd like a personal call to talk it through. Every gift funds the whole preschool, one build, one goal.
Come and hear the plan first-hand. We keep it short, specific and worth your time.
Every other Monday, 6:00–7:00 PM, across the 100 days. One hour, no filler, a focused briefing and a real chance to ask us anything.
Everyone in the room, briefly.
The school’s history, what it does today and its achievements, where it’s headed, and how this renovation fits.
Everything about the fundraising and how to take part.
Here is exactly where the campaign stands against the $100,000 goal, who is helping build it, and how every dollar is safeguarded.
Every gift, gift by gift. Fifty gifts complete the campaign.
The people building this, named with their consent.
The wall is ready. Each name goes up once that donor’s transfer has reached the account, and only for those who choose to be recognised. No gift is too small to belong.
Trust is the cornerstone. The same controls apply to every gift, at every tier.
Every gift sits in a separate account used only for this project, and it takes two signatures to release any money, so nobody can move funds alone.
A live ledger and monthly statements go to every alumnus on the list, so anyone can follow the money.
If the project cannot proceed, funds are held or returned to donors in full.
Pledge at any tier and join the founding donors of the preschool renovation.
An executive committee steers the work, working groups run the pillars, and the school stands alongside, not above. The alumni lead and decide.
Sponsored by Sœur Gloria and guided by Fahd (Community Capital), the alumni lead and decide, an executive committee steers, and each group below delivers its part of the renovation.
Tap Task Force to see everyone.
Tap a committee to filter the team below.
Commissioned by Sœur Gloria in April 2026, Fahd has been helping the school build its alumni base and launch this project from the ground up, from conceptualising the initiative to standing up its first task force. He is leading the whole effort to deliver the alumni's first project.
Fahd is an educational consultant specialising in financing, with over a decade of experience in education reform and large scale education initiatives, working with schools, NGOs, ministries, UNICEF and the World Bank. He holds master's degrees from the American University of Beirut and the University of Oxford.
A few gaps we’d love an alum, or a friend of the school, to step into.
To help tell Nazareth’s story, content, social, and the campaign itself.
Step in →Early-years expertise to help shape the preschool programme and standards.
Step in →Someone who can help deliver the renovation, its build, equipment or materials.
Step in →Someone to plan and run the gatherings, the info sessions and the gala.
Step in →Tell us who you are and how you'd like to help. Whether you can give an hour, an introduction, or a gift, there's a place for you.
A two minute form: tell us who you are, your class, and the way (or ways) you’d like to help. Someone from the task force will follow up.
Open the formTrust is the cornerstone. We meet the common concerns head on, especially the ones about money and governance.
Who can take part, and where to start.
What the Beirut story means for our school, and what it does not.
Where the money sits, who watches it, and what happens if we fall short.
When to pledge, how to pay, and what counts as a gift.
Why the preschool, who leads it, and what makes it last.
We left Kfarzeina for Beirut, the Gulf, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australia. Put yourself on the map and the school can finally see how far its students have travelled, and what they carry.
Tap a pin to see who is there. Tap it again to show everyone.
The same form that signs you up to the task force asks where you live, what you do, and what you have been up to since school. Fill it in once and your pin appears here. Only what you choose to write is shown, and you can ask us to take it down at any time.
