Protect 120 Refugee Children and women from Syria

Background during 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 and the hosted communities who started to suffer from different social, economical and psychological problems. How to meet these needs and for how long. 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 main recommendation is to create an intervention that is fit to respond to the needs arising based on the Syrian crises in relation to the physical, human and psycho-social needs of the refugees both the displaced and the host communities.

Recommendations put weight on satisfying the refugees’ basic food and non-food items, hygiene kits, adequate and safe shelter and mobility needs. In addition to helping them to meet their health and education needs.  Finally the refugees’ participation in the social life and economic growth of their families and communities is extremely needed to enhance their self-worth.

Process of the project implementation;  During this period Naba’a worked in addition to providing Non food items, basic needs, hygiene kits and clothing kits for both (displaced and hosted communities), it is also worked on addressing the main needs of the PRS and SRS families through conducting needs assessment. The main findings show that unemployed youth and adults, female heads of households, families lack of their basic needs due to the lack of funding from different INGOs and UN agencies,  children under 18years old with school enrollment challenges, children lack the protection, particularly females, and families with disabilities or at least one chronically ill member are the most vulnerable groups.

Summary of the main achievements; The project is targeting 130 Palestinian refugees families who are displaced from Syria to Ein El Helweh Palestinian refugee camp and un official gatherings, who are the most marginalized groups among refugees by providing them with the Hygiene kits.

Case Study; KY

Date of birth: 2009

Sex: Male

Nationality: Palestinian

Number of family members:  5 in total: 2Males&3females (including parents)

Child’s sequence within the family: The second child.

School: Nabaa- KG2

Excerpts from the child’s life:

K.Y lives with his parents and 2 siblings at his grandmother’s one room house. The house is untidy and its door is always open since the grandmother sells candies at her house and customers are coming and going. This atmosphere is problematic for the children and it adds to the economic burden on the parents as the kids eat from the candies nonstop. The mother pays the grandmother the cost of the candies eaten by her kids. While K.Y spends his time playing alone with the car matchboxes, he bosses around his sisters because he is the boy. The mother elaborates that he son speaks and acts as if he is the only man in the house. K.Y utters words that are not appropriate for his age and hits his sisters if they don’t follow his orders. The mother hits him in return and if he does not listen to his mother the grandmother hits him in a vicious way without taking into consideration the consequences. The father makes sure to please K.Y and prevents the mother from hitting K.Y. The father is usually outside of the house working and only comes back at night where he fights with his wife a lot in front of the entire family. The mother sometimes leaves the house and goes to her parents’ house which she did for the past year and a half and she only recently returned to the house.

Economic situation of the family: The family’s economic situation is very bad; he works as a taxi driver and he has suffered from car accidents for a couple of time. He always has to fix something in his car; thus he asks for small loans from his friends to support his family’s needs. The house belongs to the grandmother; it is untidy and lacks adequate furniture.

Social status:K.Y loves his father and spends most of his time with him and he imitates his actions and talks. The father does not hit K.Y; their relationship is harmonious. With regards to the mother, K.Y’s relationship with her is not good because she beats him when he acts in a bad way and he does not listen to her advice. K.Y takes his father as a role model when it comes to dealing with his sisters; he orders them around, it them and does not like to play with them especially his youngest sister.

Problem:

Collection of information:

The information about K.Y is collected by the social worker and the teacher at the kindergarten through home visits, observations and interviews with his family.

The problem that K.Y is facing:

During the activities, K.Y shows commitment and he is calm yet whenever he hears loud voice his facial features change and he starts shivering. However, in the house, both mother and grandmother complain of his restlessness and bad behavior. During the observations, when K.Y’s grandmother wants to discipline him she hits him so hard that he runs away from the house to the streets.

Factors that led and exacerbated the situation:

The living conditions to which K.Y is subjected to is very terrible. The mother and grandmother’s belief that discipline is only achieved by hitting K.Y makes things worse. K.Y’s relationship with his mother is not healthy/ normal; he lacks any attachment to her despite that he needs her the most in this age.

Intervention:

Involvement Steps:

K.Y has been involved in goal oriented group activities with his sisters. His mother and grandmother are invited to awareness sessions and workshops (guidance).

 Progress:

K.Y started to play with his sisters inside the house. The rate of him beating them has decreased. The mother’s relationship with K.Y is improving and they are getting closer.

 Recommendations:

It is recommended to continue with the goal oriented group activities with K.Y and to invite the mother and grandmother to awareness workshops, in addition to home visits and provide them with the basic needs of their living, hygiene kits, winterization and clothing kits.