Bishmizzine has five main civil society institutions. The Bishmizzine Heritage Initiative plans to highlight each one of them as we expand the content of our website.

Mish'al Al-Huda Association: This is a women's association whose main objective is to help needy students in the form of school fees, but in recent times it has been helping everyone in need of school, social, or health assistance. The current president of the Association is Mrs. Laila Nabil Najjar, the widow of the late Kamel Ni’mah Mufarrij.

Zahrat Al-Adab Association: This is a non-profit cultural association whose goal is to spread science and culture. It owns and runs Bishmizzine High School, a private school with classes from kindergarten through high school. The 30 members of the Association are all Bishmizzinis, while the students are from many different villages and towns in the area. The Association has an Administrative Committee that is elected every two years, headed by a president, who is currently Mr. Elias Anwar Jiha. The school is supervised by a School Committee whose president is elected every two years. The school committee is currently headed by Mr. Walid Said Najjar.

Al-Bir wa-l-Ihsan Club: This is a sports club composed of young men and women from Bishmizzine or its residents. The club supervises sporting and recreational activities in the village, the most notable of which are the Marathon during the spring, the Easter breakfast after morning mass, the sports program and the village dinner in the Bishmizzine Pine Grove during the summer. The club has an elected president, currently Mr. Edward Fahim Milki.

The Parish Council: This council manages the Orthodox Endowments in Bishmizzine, headed by the parish priest, Father Athanasius Barakat.

The Sunni Endowment Committee: This committee is concerned with the Sunni Islamic endowments in the village and supervising the village mosque. It is currently headed by Sheikh ‘Abdullah ‘Abd al-Hadi.

Walid Said Najjar
2022