Lebanon's Economic State is so Dire, This Mother is Selling Her Kidney on the Street

A video of a Lebanese mother offering to sell her kidney has circulated widely on social media. 

In the viral video, the woman sits with her son on a street carrying a sign that reads “kidney for sale, great price.”

The person recording the video asks why she is doing this, to which she replies that her son has a heart condition, her husband had been arrested amidst the protests taking over Lebanon since October, and she cannot afford to support her family. 

The woman complains that her landlord is threatening to evict her and her family if she fails to pay her overdue rent. She weeps as she confesses she cannot afford to treat her ill son, nor pay the house in which her elderly mother and her family reside. 

Translation: “After the suicide of a young man who killed himself because he couldn’t afford to support his family, a Lebanese mother called Halima Moallem offers to sell her kidney due to the fact that she cannot treat her terminally ill son, nor afford a house after her husband got detained in the protests.” 

The video sparked a massive outcry amongs activists on social media, who mourned the death of two other Lebanese people who committed suicide due to the dire economic situation in the country. 

Translate: “There’s a mother in the streets who is offering to sell her kidney, and there’s a father who committed suicide because he could not provide money to his family, and there’s a young man who attempted to burn himself alive. Our people are killing themselves because they cannot afford their basic needs like food or shelter, meanwhile, corrupt politicians are gambling with our economy and stealing our rights.”

Over the past two months, thousands of Lebanese people took to the streets to protest corruption in a rare show of unity in the deeply divided sectarian country. Economic and political experts have warned that if the economic downturn continues, Lebanon will be facing further social crises.