The “Help Each Other” Association (in Arabic: جمعية “وتعاونوا” الخيرية | English: Wataawanou Association Charity), is an association that defines itself as a charity involved in collecting donations and providing assistance to the needy. Its activities take place throughout Lebanon in general and in southern Lebanon in particular. It is headed by Afif Shuman, nicknamed “Abu al-Fadl” (“Father of Virtue/Generosity” – a nickname with a Shiite religious connotation chosen to create an image – see details below). We are familiar with the association and Shuman very well. The association belongs to Hezbollah, and Shuman is a Hezbollah operative (civilian/political operative) who promotes himself publicly as a social activist. Already in July 2022, we published an article regarding the association which showed that the “authentic” charity and social aid activity is actually part of Hezbollah’s strategy to create influence.
The association is one of Hezbollah’s civilian arms allowing it to create social-economic influence and dependence among the population in Lebanon (and not only the Shiite population), which will enable Hezbollah to operate freely in the sphere of influence, both in civilian and terrorist-military aspects. Even the name of the association is part of Hezbollah’s influence and awareness campaign (Hezbollah’s cynical use of religious symbols as a tool of control and influence – see details below).
It appears that the campaign to place mobile structures in southern Lebanon these days by the “Help Each Other” Association, headed by Shuman, is actually an attempt to create a sense of routine. To re-embed and disguise Hezbollah’s military and intelligence gathering activity in the contact line area, similar to the mobile structures of the “Green Without Borders” association that were deployed near the border before the war and were actually part of the infrastructure in preparation for the invasion of the Galilee, which Hezbollah planned to carry out.
In addition, the “Help Each Other” Association is another tool for Hezbollah to raise donations for the reconstruction of the civilian and military infrastructure of the “Hezbollah State” and has a financial connection to Iran. It appears that its head, Afif Shuman, is also exploiting this channel of funds for personal gain and wealth at the expense of the Shiite “base,” while building an image of a “social savior.”
Transporting and Placing Mobile Structures in Southern Lebanon
In recent months, since the beginning of the ceasefire in Lebanon and after the withdrawal of the IDF, the “Help Each Other” Association began transporting white mobile structures, bearing the association’s name, to villages on the contact line in order to provide “temporary housing solutions,” mainly for local farmers returning to cultivate their lands, according to public statements.
The campaign to transport and place the mobile structures is called “Al-Wajha Al-Hasan” (“The Beautiful Face”), which some also translate as “Hassan’s Face,” named after Hassan Nasrallah, the organization’s leader who was eliminated in September 2024. According to the association, each mobile structure allows lodging close to the agricultural land, and according to the association’s publications, it also provides agricultural equipment and seeds as part of its support for the rehabilitation of agricultural activity.
Among the villages that received mobile structures are Ramiya, where 50 mobile structures were delivered in early April 2025. In other villages, such as Ayta al-Sha’ab, Bint Jbeil, Houla, and al-Khiam, between 10 and 20 units of mobile structures were delivered in each village during the past month, and it was said that at least 20 more villages would receive similar assistance.
The mobile structures are not provided to every resident who wants them, but only to those who commit to staying in the area. At times, residents who were not affiliated with Hezbollah were charged significant amounts of money for the structures At a cost of $3200, while those affiliated with Hezbollah received the structures free of cost.
From the above, it appears that the “Help Each Other” Association of Afif Shuman does not operate from a motive of authentic social assistance, as Shuman tries to portray, market, and publicize at every public opportunity, but rather the activity stems from Shuman’s personal self-interest to create wealth and financial gain on the one hand, and from the association being an operational arm for creating influence on behalf of Hezbollah on the other.
Airstrikes Against Some of the Mobile Structures
Some of these mobile structures were attacked from the air and destroyed. For example, mobile structures were attacked in the areas of Kfar Kela, Naqoura, Chihine, Tayr Harfa, Ayta al-Sha’ab, and Yaroun. Immediately after some of the attacks, Afif Shuman stood next to the ruins of the mobile structures, was photographed, and promised – “For every caravan they destroy, we will build ten..”
These structures are not attacked without reason. When examining the location of some of them, it appears that they were deliberately placed in dominant locations near the border with Israel, not necessarily in a place that can be linked to agricultural activity and/or serve as an alternative to a resident’s destroyed home. This reality leads us directly to a comparison with the dozens of mobile structures that were placed near the border in the years before the war by the “Green Without Borders” association – which ostensibly dealt with environmental quality and nature conservation, but in practice was a civilian cover for regular military and intelligence activity and presence of Hezbollah near the border with Israel before the war and was actually part of the infrastructure in preparation for Hezbollah’s plan to invade the Galilee.
The Mobile Structures Project – Hezbollah’s Local and Military Involvement
It is highly likely that the distribution of the structures and their location are carried out by the association in coordination with Hezbollah’s local “Rabbats” and with military functions in Hezbollah, in our estimation, such as liaison personnel from the geographic units in southern Lebanon (Nasser/Aziz) and additional units (such as, for example, Radwan).
Note – The “Rabbat” (loosely translated as “The Connector”) serves as Hezbollah’s senior representative in the township and is in charge on behalf of Hezbollah for the township. The “Rabbat” is a central part of Hezbollah’s civilian and military infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The “Rabbats” are considered key Hezbollah operatives in their area. The “Rabbat” serves as the liaison between the residents and Hezbollah both in civilian and military matters (see a special report on the “Rabbats” we published in May 2021).
It appears that Hezbollah’s strategy through the “Help Each Other” Association, is using a tactic of ‘flooding’ the contact line area with mobile structures that are identical in shape and color. Some of the structures, perhaps even most of them, will indeed serve the residents and farmers, but some of the structures, which will be placed in locations defined by Hezbollah as “essential operational locations,” will become de facto Hezbollah outposts where Nasser, Aziz, and Radwan operatives will reside later, after habituation, under civilian cover. Thus, Hezbollah is essentially trying to re-embed and disguise its military activity in the contact line area within the human shield.
The Financial Connection to Hezbollah and Iran
The association raises donations through an account of “Al-Qardh Al-Hasan” Bank, which belongs to Hezbollah and is a platform for financing its terrorist activity. Over the years, the bank has become a money laundering arm for Hezbollah and has been under sanctions since 2007.
Above: On the right in yellow – the logo of the Al-Qardh Al-Hasan on the left in blue – the logo of the “Help Each Other” Association (وتعونوا).
Al-Qardh Al-Hasan, established in 1981, poses a direct challenge to Lebanon’s sovereignty. Its closure by the Lebanese state is a necessary step to weaken Hezbollah, and significant international pressure must be exerted on the President and government in Lebanon to do so.
Al-Qardh Al-Hasan supports the parallel economy led by Hezbollah, finances terrorist operations, and deepens its influence on the Shiite community in Lebanon. During the war, Israel attacked dozens of its branches throughout Lebanon.
Al-Qardh Al-Hasan functions as Hezbollah’s financial backbone, bypassing Lebanon’s official banking system and international financial mechanisms such as SWIFT. The bank serves hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shiites, providing loans, deposit services, and financing for programs run by Hezbollah, such as parallel health and education systems. According to Israeli intelligence estimates, Al-Qardh Al-Hasan also holds most of Hezbollah’s funds, including civilian deposits that the organization relies on during and after war for reconstruction, rearmament, and financing military terrorist operations. Hezbollah operatives’ salaries are paid through Al-Qardh Al-Hasan.
This financial channel is critical to maintaining the Iranian-funded “Hezbollah State,” damaging Lebanon’s official institutions, and deepening the economic crisis in the country.
In addition, some of the association’s projects are also funded through the Iranian “Imam Ridai” association, in coordination with the Iranian embassy in Beirut, which Shuman himself confirmed its support in various interviews.
Afif Shuman – Head of the Association
The figure most identified with the association and its head is Afif Shuman, a well-known prominent social activist who is in fact a Hezbollah civilian/political operative. Shuman has extensive activity on social networks, especially on his popular Facebook and Twitter accounts, which together include tens of thousands of followers. In addition to social networks, Shuman has become a regular interviewee on various Hezbollah channels against the background of his involvement in social issues. Shuman’s extensive activity on social networks and his appearances in the media help him, of course, in cultivating his image as a “social savior.”
The nickname given to Shuman is part of the cultivation of the image and awareness that Shuman wants to create among the Shiite base. Similar to the name of the association, the nickname also has Shiite religious connotations that create immediate identification among the Shiite base. “Abu al-Fadl” is mostly used to praise a person who is generous, honorable, and has good qualities. In addition, it is also a famous nickname for al-Abbas ibn Ali, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, a highly revered figure in Shiite Islam. Al-Abbas was known for his courage, loyalty, and generosity, and therefore received the title “Abu al-Fadl.”
Shuman and the association’s activists openly display their affiliation with Hezbollah; in fact, they actively promote the organization’s ideology.
Shuman, a Shiite, 43 years old, grew up in the village of Zefta, in the Nabatiyeh District. He has 11 brothers and sisters. In various interviews, he tends to discuss and emphasize his difficult childhood it, about how he dropped out of school to help support his family and about a small diner he set up with his brother at the age of 18, which, according to him, became a well-known meeting point in the area. During the Second Lebanon War (2006), Shuman, according to him, began his volunteer activity by distributing food to patients in a psychiatric institution that was not evacuated.
Shuman makes great efforts to build his image as someone who grew up in southern Lebanon in a poor family and today sees himself as a “social emissary,” whose sole purpose is to help the population…
In addition to Afif Shuman, two other prominent activists in the association are known:
The Name of the Association is Part of Hezbollah’s Awareness Campaign
The Arabic name of the association (“Wataawanou”) is taken from verse 2 in Surah Al-Ma’idah (Surah number 5 in the Quran): “…And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in punishment.”
Verse 2 calls on believers to cooperate in doing good and to refrain from cooperating with crime, hostility, bloodshed, and war in the “forbidden month.” The “forbidden month” (Arabic: الشهر الحرام, Ash-Shahr al-Haram) is one of four months in the Islamic year in which it is forbidden to fight or shed blood according to ancient Arab tradition and the Quran.
Doing good is a high moral principle in Islam – to help, rehabilitate, support your brothers – which sounds like a pure humanitarian purpose. But here, precisely, lies Hezbollah’s cynical use of religious symbols as a tool of control and influence.
Ironically, Hezbollah draws inspiration from the verse that calls for avoiding hostility, while its ideology is based on “resistance.” Thus, religious discourse becomes a control mechanism: the verse intended to prevent injustice is recruited to whitewash it.
Hezbollah currently operates the “Help Each Other” Association, whose name is based on Quranic images of kindness, rehabilitation, and charity, to rebuild the trust of the Shiite base. This is after it caused enormous destruction as a result of the war.
The association’s activity is presented as assistance on behalf of the “resistance,” but in practice, they are used not only for reconstruction but for maintaining dependence, spreading ideology, and strengthening and rehabilitating Hezbollah’s image as the “defender of Lebanon” – when Hezbollah itself was the direct cause of the destruction that befell Lebanon.
Additional Details on the “Help Each Other” Association and its Activity as an Influence Lever
The date of the association’s establishment is not officially clear, and it may have been established in 2019. However, all of its accounts on social networks were opened in 2020.
Image of association’s Twitter page showing the joining date
The association’s activity is known to us from several events in recent years in Lebanon in the Shiite base areas and in Sunni areas, and also outside of Lebanon – in Syria.
The association is known, among other things, in light of its mobilization to provide financial assistance to 300 families of workers in the carpet factory in the village of Zefta near Nabatiyeh, following the fire that broke out in the factory at the beginning of July 2022. The village of Zefta is a Shiite village, most of which supports the Amal movement. Through the “Help Each Other” Association, Hezbollah exploited the fire, which caused the loss of income for hundreds of families, to gain sympathy, support, and influence in the village at the expense of the Amal movement.
Hezbollah creates levers of influence through the association not only in the Shiite base areas, while exploiting the dysfunction or under-functioning of the Lebanese state institutions. In this context, the Sunni city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon is an example of this.
At the beginning of June 2022, an outbreak of hepatitis began in the city of Tripoli. Due to the Lebanese health system’s ineptitude, the “Help Each Other” Association sent delegations to the affected areas and provided financial assistance to patients who could not afford to pay for medical treatment and medication. Throughout June, the association filled the vacuum left by the authorities in Lebanon for the residents of Tripoli.
On June 27, 2022, a building called Dahr al-Mughr collapsed in the Kobeeh area of Tripoli, injuring several people and leaving at least 14 families homeless. The “Help Each Other” Association and Afif Shuman were among the first to offer assistance and rushed to the site of the ruins.
Shuman himself told local media that the association immediately transferred approximately one million Lebanese pounds in aid to each citizen affected by the building collapse and more than 100 food rations. Shuman further emphasized that the association he heads is “an association that supports the resistance and is proud of it, but it does not belong to anyone…”
However, according to one of the publications of the “Nashitoun” (“Activists”) website, the image that Afif Shuman tried to create on social networks, according to which the people of Tripoli are grateful for the assistance provided by the association, is nothing but a distortion of reality. When the association’s delegation, headed by Shuman, arrived in the area of the destroyed Dahr al-Mughr building and the identity of its members became clear to the local residents, it aroused great anger among them. Some of them, according to the publication, even fired shots in the air to drive away the “unwelcome delegation.”
The earthquake in Syria. On the morning of February 6, 2023, a devastating earthquake occurred in southern Turkey and northern Syria. More than fifty thousand people were killed in the two countries, and tens of thousands more were injured. Extensive damage was caused to buildings, and hundreds of thousands of people in Syria were left homeless. Destruction was reported in the Syrian areas of Aleppo, Hama, Afrin, Latakia, and more. The “Help Each Other” Association sent trucks with aid from Lebanon to the earthquake areas, during a public relations marketing campaign on social networks, which was managed by Shuman and was very difficult to ignore.
