Dignity for displaced women and girls in Lebanon

Background during and after the implementation of the project; The Lebanese legal framework and economic situation influence women’s experience of and responses to GBV while living in Lebanon. Although Lebanon has fairly progressive domestic violence, laws in general and compared to other countries in the region, women and men are still treated unequally under Lebanese law and the decision issued by the Lebanese government to halt UN registration of Syrian refugees has raised concerns that Syrian refugees will be more vulnerable to economic and other types of abuses.

Syrian refugee women may experience forced and early marriage because family members are trying to “protect” women and girls from rape and its social consequences (including the inability to marry due to sexual assault) and because they face extreme poverty with few options for becoming economically secure other than marriage. Economic instability also makes women vulnerable to sexual exploitation, forced and coerced prostitution, and trafficking.

Therefore, the need for reproductive and sexual health services during times of conflict and in post conflict settings has been recognized internationally and for Syrian refugee women and girls in particular. Reproductive and sexual health services are considered a human right and may be especially necessary for refugee communities because many women and girls are exposed to GBV during times of conflict and GBV is associated with poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

 Naba’a Achievements; During the last period,

o   Women and girls access reproductive health services; Nabaa’ targeted around 500 men and women provided two non-consecutive days/ week – clinics in Ein el Helweh and Rashidieh which targeted note that, 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 to 250 adolescent girls from the age group of 11-18 in schools and vocational training centers. Whereas, awareness and counselling sessions have targeted 320 boys from the age group of 11-18 in schools and vocational training centers by the male health educators.
• 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 415 female 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+).
• 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;

Age; 45 Years

Nationality; Palestinian from Syria

No. of family members; 4 (2 males – 2 females) excluded the mother and the father

Place of living; Ein El Helweh Palestinian refugee camp

 The woman is living with her children in Ein El Helweh camp, in a house consisting of only two rooms, her husband stayed in Syria with his older son. The mother came to Lebanon after the Syrian crisis, she stayed in the camp at her uncle’s house.

Economical situation;

The economical situation of the mother is very bad, as she is the main responsible for her very young children and she is not working. The Brothers of the women supporting her financially (by giving her a little amount of money), since they are also suffering from a very bad situation.

Social Situation;

The woman is missing her husband and her son very much, and always crying to meet them again, but she afraid to return back, her house was totally destroyed in Syria, in addition she watched the crisis there and afraid on her young children.

The women follow up her children socially and educationally, she enrolled them in Naba’a activities, as she wanted them to get rid from their anxiety and stress.

The main problem of the women;

The woman is always worrying about her children, she prevented them to go outside alone, she is always thinking that someone will hurt them, this is due to that the way she lived during the Syrian crisis in Syria. The woman is very sensitive and always crying from any word or anything happened to her.

Intervention and recommendation;

The woman started to join Naba’a activities as the followings;

-          Awareness sessions and activities,

-          she benefited from the hygiene kits

-          Psychosocial activities

-          Listening sessions

-          Follow up and home visits

Links:

• Naba'a Website