Dignity for displaced women and girls in Lebanon

Background during and after the implementation of the project; Since 2011, there have been an estimated one million and a half Syrian refugees in Lebanon. In times of conflict, women’s health disproportionately suffers, and Syrian women are no different. A vast majority of Syrian refugees are hosted in Lebanon, while Lebanon has approached the refugee crisis in a many different way, similar women’s health problems have arisen, and Syrian women’s health and reproductive health has been compromised. Syrian women experience sexual harassment, rape, violence, early age at marriage, early age at pregnancy and complications during pregnancy. Because Syrian refugees reside in multiple countries, international and diplomatic efforts are required to address their health and well-being. The continued presence of Syrian refugee women’s health disparities requires action to remedy the disparities. Creating health programs and policies for Syrian women refugees’ health requires operating at the intersection of diversity and diplomacy and is essential to post-conflict reconstruction and recovery.

In situations of gender-based violence, such as violence in the home, women often do not have any option to leave their home as they usually remain dependent on their family for housing. Lack of rights to their home can also be a result of not being named on any lease agreement or not having any separate income or ability to pay rent

Naba’a Achievements; During the last period, Naba’a aimed to foster the reshaping of the lives of the women inside Palestinian refugee camps. Through tackling the grassroots of the violation in rights among host and hosted families of Palestinian refugees women aged 16-35. Through different interventions Naba’a also works on gathering both (Palestinian refugees women who are already living inside the camps and those who fled from Syria) to raise together their common problems and sufferings, monitoring the violations of their rights in the local community and to reduce the conflict among themselves. By taking a grassroots approach we aimed to help women to become effective actors for social change; giving them the knowledge, skills and confidence to drive social change in their own communities. Therefore, Naba’a intervention is based on two mainstreams;

-          The first one is on improving the status of women as to ensure that they are treated equally within their community and they are aware about their rights and how to protect themselves from abuse. This will be achieved through;

• Raising awareness 400 women (200/camp) on CEDWA and how to protect themselves from abuse inside Palestinian refugees living inside Rashydieh and Ein El Helweh camps and PRS who fled from Syria.
• Psycho-social support and individual listening sessions for those who are exposed to violence and abuse. Through the individual sessions, the main common problems and sufferings are raised and tried to be treated, in addition to conduct anger management healing strategies with the displaced women.
• Outreach activities aiming to give them opportunity to express themselves, reduce the gap among both beneficiaries, overcome their problems and reduce stress and pressure.

-          The second stream is focusing on strengthening the women’s capacity inside their communities (both displaced women and women who are living inside the camps) where they become able to address their common problems (bad economical situation, women violated rights such as participation and protection) and needs and uphold them to higher level of decision making. At this stage they will be the focal with the displaced Palestinian committee, so through empowering their capacities and skills in leader ship and planning and participating with the active members and duty bearer, they can reshape the lives of the women inside Palestinian refugee camps, and induce social change through social activism where they will mobilize other women and induce them to participate actively.

CASE STUDY

Case Study

Code: EH080 IB

Nationality: PRL

Age: 22 years old

Social status: Divorced

Address: Ain El-Hilweh camp

Number of children: a girl (6 years)

About Status:

The Case is a 22-years-old woman who has had many experiences in her life. She married twice and did not succeed in her marriage life, when she married the first time she was 13 years old as she lived with him for 7 years, where she gave birth to her child, who is now deprived from her. The case lives an unstable life as she moved from one place to another because of her husband's work in many areas, which caused to them many problems, according to what she said is that her ex-husband is a miserly person. He used to work as a Soldier which led his absence from the house and he was saying to his wife that there is no objection if she brought money in an unethical way but she refused and went to her parent’s home. Because of the customs and traditions they refuse to divorce a girl of 17 years as they forced her to stay and she didn’t tell anything regarding what he was doing to her, until she became abused from her husband in front of their little daughter.
She submit a complaint to the Military Court and was divorced from him as she agreed to keep the girl with her on the condition that she does not get married and if she will marry, the child will turn to her father. The women live year with her parents and her child until she met a man who approached her and felt her interest and love and was married to him, She was divorced from him because he was addicted to alcoholand gambling and couldnot accept it, especially after the first experience that she had refused to give any justification and any other chance. But after her marriage, her daughter turned to her father and wife as well as she goes to her mother house on a weekly basis. And sometimes prevents from meeting her.

 The women lives with her parents and she was angry about her life and society, as she suffers from depression and She refuses to talk about her stress and what she feels is the rejection of life, sadness and anxiety for her daughter.

Intervention:

After several visits and individual sessions of listening and unloading, we were able to alleviate depression and transform negative feelings and reject life to accept the conditions and face difficulties and think positively, convert her from the state of introversion to integration into society through the introduction of vocational training for girls and return to study and optimism in the future as introduced in the team Targets and give them awareness workshops about stress and how to deal with emotions - how to deal with the risks - communication – and how to control yourself.

Information collection:

- Case

- Social workers

Recommendations:

- Follow-up of the Case through individual hearings.

- Follow up the Case through awareness sessions.

- Follow-up of case in vocational training.

- Trying to help her get a job that suits her.

Links:

• Naba'a website

I)      Background during and after the implementation of the project; Nearly half of the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian populations affected by the crisis are children and women,   Public services are overstretched, with demand exceeding the capacity of institutions and infrastructure to meet needs. The service sectors are also overburdened, with the public health sector accumulating debt as displaced Syrian patients are unable to cover their part of the bill[1]. Seven years into the conflict, poverty levels are high and the long-term resilience of the country’s vulnerable communities is eroding as they run out of savings and struggle to access income. At present, 1.5 million Lebanese live below the poverty line, of whom 470,000 are children[2].

Experiences of displacement of Syrian and Palestinian refugees due to armed conflict, persecution, or disasters put significant psychological and social stress on individuals, families and communities. The ways in which refugees experience and respond to loss, pain, disruption and violence vary significantly and may in various ways affect their mental health and psychosocial wellbeing or increase their vulnerability to develop mental health problems. Often, reactions to disruptive situations are normal and can be overcome with time, therefore, we worked hard to support children and women to overcome the crisis that they are suffering from through activities such as supporting communities’ resilience, promoting mechanisms for social support, and offering services to individuals with more complex mental health needs.

Naba’a Achievements; During the last period,

Nabaa’ targeted 640 beneficiaries provided two non-consecutive days/ week – clinics in Ein el Helweh and Rashidieh the clinics are managed by a women gynecologist and a female nurse and the clinic operates one day in the afternoon.

• Regarding based health awareness, 6 session’s cycles on adolescent health topics have been targeted 1555 adolescent girls from the age group of 11-18 in schools and vocational training centers.
• Moreover, monthly reproductive and psychosocial health outreach sessions targeted both men and women and it was conducted by the project’s health professionals, peer to peer team and community mothers and have been participated by 2337 female (60 from the age group of 11-18 and 1497 from the age group of 19-35 and 780 from the age group of 36-50) and by 200 men (10 from the age group of 11-18 and 116 from the age group of 19-35 and 74 from the age group of 36-50+).
• Psychosocial support and empowerment for the adolescent and young refugee girls.
• Finally, two campaigns about breast cancer and cervical cancer have been implemented and targeted 620 males and female (180 from the age group 19-35 and 440 from the age group 36-50+). Knowing that three cases whom are suffering from cancer were discovered during breast and cervical cancer campaigns and they have been referred to specialist. In addition, to that, a large number of men whom are unexpected have been targeted in awareness sessions and the number of women and girls that have been benefited exceeds the actual plan.

CASE STUDY

M.A is 16 years old girls; she is Palestinian from ein al helwe camp. She lives with her mother, two sisters and two brothers, her father is dead. The family suffers from a difficult economic and social situation and that is because the source of income is only the mother (cleaner).

M.A feels depressed, lonely   and stress because her mother and sisters have no time to her and no one cares about her. She left the school when she was in grade six and stayed at home doing nothing so she became more angry, stress, aggressive and all the time she is alone, hate to go out of home and communicate with the others.

So during home visits by social workers they convinced her to attend our activities and to register in vocational training center. During vocational training she also attended she deal methodology, life skills sessions, PSS sessions and RH sessions as anger management, how to deal with stress and depression, personal hygiene . Also she was followed by psychologist to support her.

After seven month M.A have been finished her vocational training and start working in beauty center and taking salary that helped her family ,a she also knew how to deal with anger and stress, how to make relations with others and how to protect herself .

[1] Lebanon-LCRP-2017-2020-2018-Update.pdf

[2] Lebanon-LCRP-2017-2020-2018-Update.pdf

Links:

• Naba'a Website