Hope does not always arrive as certainty. Sometimes, it means taking one more step, asking for help, listening without judgment, or staying beside someone when the way forward is unclear.
This understanding of hope set the tone as Antonine University (UA) officially opened the fifth edition of its Wellness and Mental Health Week (WMHW) on October 5, 2026, under the theme “The Power of Hope: Let Your Mind and Heart Bloom.”
Held under the patronage of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office in Beirut, this year’s edition brings mental health and well-being into conversation with education, public health, spirituality, personal experience, art, identity, and human connection.
The Official Ceremony gathered students, University leadership, representatives of national and international institutions, health professionals, speakers, artists, and members of the wider community around one central question: how can hope become something lived, practiced, and shared?
Hosting the ceremony was Ms. Yara Dergham, news reporter and TV host, who guided the audience through the morning’s conversations, testimonies, performances, and interactive moments.
From the outset, the audience became part of the ceremony itself. Two large hoops representing the heart and mind were passed from one person to another until they reached the front of the stage for the official launch of the Week, symbolizing the contribution of every person present to a shared culture of well-being.
The conversation continued through an interactive Heart–Mind game, inviting attendees to respond to situations in which emotion and reason could lead in different directions. Rather than searching for one correct answer, the exercise opened space to reflect on personal choices, boundaries, support, trust, and responsibility, while listening to perspectives different from one’s own.
A second visual thread unfolded through a large puzzle wall that evolved throughout the ceremony. At the start, the wall reflected some of the emotions and pressures that can weigh heavily on well-being: insecurity, overthinking, doubt, worry, fear, pressure, stress, and expectations.
As the program unfolded, speakers and guests gradually placed puzzle pieces over the wall, transforming those words into balance, healing, self-love, peace, clarity, growth, strength, empowerment, confidence, positivity, joy, and new beginnings. Piece by piece, the visual moved from tension and overwhelm toward a blooming image carrying the message: “When mind and heart unite, hope blooms.”
By the end of the ceremony, the completed puzzle became a reflection of the Week itself: not an attempt to erase difficult emotions, but an invitation to recognize them, move through them, and create space for healing, growth, and hope.
Hope as a Practice
Opening the Week, UA Rector Rev. Fr. Michel Saghbiny reflected on hope as more than reassurance or positive thinking, particularly in a context marked by academic and professional pressures, economic strain, uncertainty, and social challenges.
He presented hope as the ability to acknowledge difficulty without allowing it to determine what comes next. It can take the form of setting a goal and pursuing it, trying again after failure, asking for help, or extending support to another person.
Fr. Saghbiny also situated mental health within the University’s educational mission. Education, he emphasized, extends beyond the transmission of knowledge to helping people discover their potential and develop the inner resources needed to navigate uncertainty.
Addressing students directly, he encouraged them not to associate seeking help with weakness, but to recognize it as one of the courageous steps a person can take when facing difficulty.
He then officially declared the fifth Wellness and Mental Health Week open, inviting the UA community to help build a culture in which people listen to one another, speak about mental health without fear or stigma, and make well-being part of everyday life.
Mental Health as a Shared Responsibility
The ceremony also extended the conversation beyond the University, reflecting the broader partnerships behind this year’s edition.
Representing UNESCO, Mr. Assem Abi Ali, Coordinator of the National Education Programme in UNESCO Regional Office in Beirut, connected mental health to the conditions needed for meaningful learning, stressing that education cannot be separated from the psychological safety, sense of belonging, and human support students need in order to learn and thrive.
He also reflected on humanity as a value that brings together UNESCO’s educational mission, the spirit of the WMHW, and the balance between mind and heart explored throughout the ceremony. Drawing on UNESCO Beirut’s work with schools through art, sports, and green education, he emphasized that mental health cannot be advanced by one institution alone. Instead, it depends on sustained collaboration across universities, international organizations, and public institutions, with the new partnership between UA and UNESCO contributing to stronger and more sustainable forms of support and hope.
The MOPH was represented by Dr. Rabih El Chammay, Founder and Director of the National Mental Health Programme, who conveyed the message of H.E. Dr. Rakan Nasreddine, Minister of Public Health.
The Minister’s message highlighted the importance of placing mental health and well-being at the center of sustained engagement, emphasizing that hope gains meaning when people know they are not alone, that support is accessible, and that they can take an active role in shaping their lives and communities.
It also reinforced mental health as a shared public responsibility, extending beyond the health sector alone. Within this effort, universities have an important role to play in creating environments where young people can speak openly, seek support, and care for one another responsibly.
Later in the ceremony, Dr. El Chammay returned to the stage in his own capacity to address “Hope in Times of Crisis: Why Mental Health Matters.” He distinguished hope from optimism and presented it as an active response to crisis, while underscoring mental health as essential to the well-being and functioning of individuals and societies.
He also highlighted 1564, the National Lifeline, as a concrete reminder that reaching out for support can itself be an act of courage and hope.
Giving Experience a Voice
Personal experience remained at the heart of the morning.
Mr. Bassam Wehbe, actor-engineer hybrid, creative director, and street theater performer, shared a personal testimony through “Theater: Where the Mind Can Breathe,” bringing the theme of hope into the language of lived experience and creative expression.
UA students Anthony Merhi, Fatima Yahfoufi, Hussein Al Moussawi, and Maria Zgheib then joined Fr. Jean Al Alam, Secretary General and Vice Rector for Integral Human Development, for “Beyond the Struggle: Voices of Hope.”
Speaking openly before the audience, the students shared their experiences with UA’s Counseling Service and reflected on how seeking support had helped them navigate difficult moments and move forward. Their courage in discussing experiences that are often kept private challenged the hesitation and stigma that can surround counseling and reinforced a simple message: asking for help can itself be an act of courage.
The ceremony also recognized Ms. Micheline Sammour of the Counseling Service for her role in creating a space where students and members of the University community can speak, be heard, and work through difficult experiences without fear of judgment.
Art offered another language for the same conversation. The Cavaleiro Dance Group used movement to express experiences that can be difficult to put into words, while Ms. Louisa Khoury later performed “You Raise Me Up,” accompanied by a recording of the Antonine University Choir.
Caring for the Whole Person
The morning continued by approaching well-being through physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.
In “From Diagnosis to Resilience: The Healing Power of Hope,” Dr. Maroun Sadek, a hematology and oncology specialist, brought a medical and deeply human perspective to the discussion, drawing attention not only to treatment, but also to resilience, support, and the person living through illness.
From a spiritual perspective, Rev. Abbot Joseph Bou Raad, Superior General of the Antonine Maronite Order and UA Chancellor, reflected on Abraham as a biblical figure of hope.
Through the relationship between promise, faith, hope, and patience, he described hope not as a denial of difficult circumstances, but as an anchor that can provide direction through them. Like an anchor that does not stop the storm but keeps a vessel from drifting, hope can remain present even when answers and outcomes are not yet visible.
The ceremony then welcomed Messrs. Giovanni and Charbel Lteif, whose digital content brings Eastern Christian faith and heritage to audiences worldwide. Their testimony, “The Fight for Hope,” expanded the conversation from individual experience toward faith, identity, belonging, and the ways hope can also be carried collectively.
When the Pieces Come Together
With every testimony, intervention, and performance, another piece was added to the puzzle onstage.
By the time the final puzzle pieces were placed, what had begun as a wall marked by fear, doubt, pressure, and uncertainty had been transformed into a picture of healing, growth, confidence, joy, and new beginnings.
The final Heart–Mind exchange returned the audience to the question with which the ceremony had begun. This time, the reflection had shifted: perhaps hope does not ask people to choose between heart and mind. Instead, it asks the heart not to deny reality and the mind not to reduce the future to what is visible today.
To bring that message to life visually, Giovanni and Charbel Lteif then carried two large shapes representing the mind and heart onto the stage and brought them together, completing the ceremony’s central symbol.
The final image highlighted two messages at the heart of this year’s theme: “a powerful mind grows” and “a hopeful heart connects.” Together, the two shapes reflected the balance the Week seeks to encourage: a mind able to grow through awareness, clarity, and resilience, and a heart able to connect through hope, empathy, and human relationships.
The Official Ceremony concluded with the recognition of participating speakers and contributors before guests were invited to continue the experience at the Wellness Fair, marking the transition from the opening ceremony into the wider program of WMHW 2026.
Throughout the Week, that conversation continues through encounters, activities, performances, awareness initiatives, and spaces dedicated to connection, reflection, and well-being.
By giving mental health sustained space within university life, UA continues to advance an approach to education that considers the whole person. Learning is accompanied by belonging, support, dialogue, and opportunities for growth, creating a community in which hope can move beyond an idea and become something practiced together.