One mayor, double the help: Lebanese twin brothers serve community

Record ID: 1428804

  • Title: One mayor, double the help: Lebanese twin brothers serve community
  • Date: 27th August 2019
  • Summary: AHMAD LOOKING THROUGH DOCUMENTS TWIN BROTHERS TALKING
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2019 15:22
  • Keywords: Lebanon society community mayor brothers twins civil war service
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • City: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA003ATZV0PH
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: When Ahmad Baydoun became the mayor of Ashrafieh neighbourhood, his identical twin brother did not leave his side and after decades of working together, the pair have come to be known by residents as "the mayors".
    Ahmed's brother, Khaled, is often mistaken for the mayor but he does not mind it and when people stop him in the street thinking he is the mayor, he asks them how he can help.
    The septuagenarian twins love to spend their time serving their community and both Ahmad and Khaled said they find pleasure in it.
    At the mayor's office, Ahmed sits behind his desk processing paperwork and documents, aided by his brother Khaled who is heavily involved in the work.
    And when work commitments overlap the mayor gets to be at two places at the same time.
    Ahmed, 72, is five minutes older than his twin brother and has served as mayor of Ashrafieh since 1970.
    After Khaled's business in the export-import business collapsed during the war, he joined his brother in the mayor's office to help him.
    Public service runs in the Baydoun family, with three generations serving the mostly Christian Ashrafieh neighbourhood as mayor.
    The twins live in the area, where the only mosque there was built by one of their relatives as well.
    The inseparable twins say they are proud to share their lives together from the moment they were born.
    They even had a close call once during the civil when both were shot by a sniper, Ahmed first then Khaled when he came to his aid.
    "We came together (to this world) it seems we'll go (die) together," Ahmed had said to Khaled, but both survived the incident and went on to spend the coming decades of their lives in the service of others.
    (Production: Issam Abdallah, Imad Creidi, Yara Abi Nader)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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