Star Scene

By Mohammed Zaatari

A 4,600-square-meter painted canvas was assembled at the Cite Sportive stadium in Beirut Sunday, breaking the Guinness world record for the largest handprint painting.

The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) broke the record by creating the Red Cross emblem using handprints collected from various Lebanese regions.

The aim was to promote humanitarian values and solidarity. The project was dubbed “Idak Maana,” Arabic for “give us a hand.”

The former holder of the world’s largest handprint painting was China, with a 3,715.86-square-meter canvas encouraging youths to combat drugs.

The LRC painting received a certificate from representatives of the Guinness book for world records as the new largest handprint painting in the world.

LRC vice president Walid Kibbi stressed the objective was not simply to enter the Guinness book of records but to involve the Lebanese society and its youth in an activity that served LRC principles.

“We offer this achievement to peace-loving people and to Lebanon,” Kibbi said during the ceremony.

The initiative, which sought to promote humanitarian values such as solidarity, assistance, mutual respect, acceptance, tolerance, non-violence and eliminating discrimination, was achieved over two phases.

Over the weekend, eight pieces of fabric measuring over 80 meters in length and 6 meters in width were distributed to Lebanon’s various districts.

Thousands of students from Lebanese private and public schools imprinted their hands on the cloth, along with members of civil-society organizations and disabled citizens. Disabled Palestinian refugees from the Ghassan Kanafi organization in the Ain al-Hilweh camp also took part.

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Photos by Mahmoud Kheir

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