Dignity for displaced women and girls in Lebanon

Background during and after the implementation of the project;Three years on, and the Syrian crises continue to get more complicated and vague. Big concerns arise about the needs of the refugees coming from Syria, how to meet these needs and for how long.  The global concerns are related to the humanitarian, economic and social aspects of the Syrian crises, and focus on the people inside Syria and the around four million Syrians and Palestine refugees who have been displaced to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. On top, there is the concern of the continuous mobility of displaced people as a consequence of the unrelenting unstable conditions.

In Lebanon, and by end of 2014, around 1,144,706 Syrian refugees and 45,116 displaced Palestine refugees from Syria (PRS) are located. The situation is particularly complicated due to cutback in funds directed towards the Syrian crises, and according to the world bank assessment “By 2014, it is estimated that the Syrian conflict will double the unemployment rate in Lebanon to above 20%, push approximately 170,000 Lebanese into poverty and demand an additional USD $5.1 billion to stabilize access to, and quality of, public services to their pre-Syrian conflict level”.

The needs assessment done by Naba’a at the beginning of 2014,  shows that unemployed youth and adults, female heads of households, children under 18years old with school enrollment challenges, and families with disabilities or at least one chronically ill member are the most vulnerable groups.These four vulnerable groups are derived from the twelve identified categories within PRS, SRS and PRL. In order to decrease the vulnerability of these four groups in specific and the Syrian refugee population in general, basic needs should be met.

Meanwhile it is crucial to continue offering the basic needs particularly for women, children and adolescent girls, in addition to empower their economic and social skills, this will help ensure and facilitate the participation of persons with potentials in the social life and economic growth of their families and communities. This will help improve the livelihood of the target population and offer them a pathway out of vulnerability.

Naba’a Achievements;

During the last three months, within Naba’a Women Empowerment Program, we focused on supporting women, young and adolescent girls, through the followings;

-          Reproductive Health which targets the Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon, Palestinian refugee from Syria and displaced Syrians, this includes health checkup and treatment through the follow up of the gynecologist, the nurse and psychologist

-          Providing Hygiene kits for the most marginalized women and girls

-          Raising awareness adolescent girls on how to protect themselves from abuse and disease, particularly in the situation where the sharing rooms and houses.

-          Psychosocial support and individual counseling for women and girls who are living in a very difficult circumstances and at risk of physical and sexual abuse

-          Psycho social and out reach activities for the children whom their household headed families are females and they are living in a separated family.

Case Study for one of the girls who is in need of assistance;

Name: Bashira

Date of Birth: 1972

Nationality: PRS

Number of family members: 5 including the father and the mother

Home Situation:

The house is a single open room where there are no walls; children and the mother parents slept together, and the outer shell closed by curtains, there is no furniture but only two Sofas, one of them the father slept over and the other for the girl, where the mother and the children sleep on the floor. There is a TV, a fan, a small refrigerator and a small gas. For the bathroom there groundless just a small hole and a small Laundry.

We asked them if they have blankets for heating in the winter, they told us yes but they are not enough also there is no heater, noting that there is no walls in the house to protect them from winter.

Economic Situation:

The family economic situation is very bad, the father does not work because he is sick and cannot move from the mattress. They pay 200,000 for the house because it is rented, they also spend from their UNRWA income which is 350,000 LL. They also pay for the girl's supportive teacher a 50,000 for a teacher's. They always debt in order to live.

Health Situation:

Because of the father's disease, he feels that he is outcast from society as he attempted suicide and attempts that either by eating the things that harm him, he is very nervous and is not trying to get closer to anyone, so his wife describes him that he enclosed himself often does not sit with them and speak with anyone and if he wants anything he screaming or hitting or breaking to aggressive with the boys and especially with the girl.

The mother is a house wife, she didn’t work outside, and she always tries to get any help from the associations and UNRWA in order to live in a better way.

As for the mother relationship with the children is good, and they love her because she provides them their needs.

The boys in the family are youth their ages are 18 and 21 years old, but they are not working, they didn’t find work also they are enclosed themselves. And because of the bad economic situation they didn’t go outside, they stay at home, and that affects their psyches and their social relations, they escape from people in order not to face them and look them in inferior way.

Whereas the girl aged 9 years old, is studying at Al Mintar School at grade 5, she suffers from depression because she didn’t get anything new like her friends or any girl. She wears old clothes and used from others. She needs to wear like any girl and has a privacy like other girls.

Intervention; This family they get hygiene and food assistant from Naba’a, still they suffering from a very bad situation, they feel discriminating from others, as they are rarely go out side their home. So, Naba’a team started to have regular home visits for them and to engage them in different activities particularly the children.