By Will Carr

When Jawad Trad was born in Beirut in 1981, Lebanon was six years into a bitter civil war. As a child, Trad grew up seeing poverty on a scale most of us can’t imagine, a first-hand witness to its effects on the people of Lebanon.

His father, Mohsen Trad, was a lawyer and a politician unwilling to leave the country. But Jawad Trad knew he had to escape to ever find peace. He didn’t know then how the experiences of his childhood would stay with him, ultimately guiding him to the work he’s doing today. 

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