Georges Hayek (vegan): Owner of the World’s First Vegan Hospital, Part 2 of 2

Georges Hayek (vegan) runs Hayek Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. It is a Shining World Compassion Award recipient. “In March 2020, this was the beginning of a new era in the hospital. This is when I removed animal products from the hospital, and I started serving exclusively plant-based meals. I stopped, of course, buying leather furniture. All animal products in the hospital, those were stopped, not only food. I truly believe so, because it has been shown that animal testing is not efficient and will not be having adequate results concerning human beings as well.”

Producing and consuming animal-people meat is highly dangerous to our well-being, and Mr. Hayek wants a paradigm shift in the healthcare industry where it is no longer provided to patients. We asked Mr. Hayek why he thought his hospital was the first in the world to only offer vegan food to patients.

Mr. Hayek also founded Lebanese Vegans, a non-profit that promotes animal-people rights and the vegan diet. “And maybe it's because it is out of sight, but it is happening. And we have transformed our planet into one giant slaughterhouse. So, any oppression in my eyes, any injustice should be tackled, and veganism is mainly and foremost about injustice that is taking place against animals.”

Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) was moved by the benevolent endeavors of Mr. Hayek, namely Hayek Hospital and Lebanese Vegans, and presented these entities with the Shining World Compassion Award and Shining World Vegan Incentive Award, respectively, in 2021. Lebanese Vegans also received a humble token contribution of US$20,000 from Master to further its caring work.

“And concerning the hospital, I'm preparing a blueprint plan, a structured model for other hospitals who would want to adopt the plant-based diet, so that they would know from where to start and how to move forward, of course.”