LEBANON / SYRIAN REFUGEES WINTER

With winter on the doorstep, UNHCR and its partners estimate that some 132,000 refugee households (660,000 people) in Lebanon will be in need of some kind of assistance during the winter to keep them warm and dry.  UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:00
• Production Date: 28 November 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: LEBANON; SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 1254800

Description

STORY: LEBANON / SYRIAN REFUGEES WINTER
TRT: 3.00
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC /ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 25-26 NOVEMBER 2014, BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON

Shotlist

26 NOVEMBER 2014, BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON

1. Various shots, refugee camp under the rain
2. Close up, little girl at the doorstep
3. Med shot, woman and a child walking
4. Close up, Um
5. Various shot, Um and her family peeling garlic
6. Close up, rain falling on the tarp
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Um Mohammed, Syrian refugee:
“This winter is so tough for us. In these two, three days we have hated our life. It’s so difficult to sleep at night, so cold. All night it’s pouring down rain on us and the tent is falling apart. It leaks from here and there, and there is mud underneath us.”
8. Various shots, children playing inside tent
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lamia, 13-year-old Syrian Refugee:
“I have to go out early in the morning to get water, it’s so cold and it’s raining. There is not even a heater I can run back to warm me up. Even the water we get from the well it’s dirty, it makes us sick.”
10. Various shots, UNHCR workers distributing blankets
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Maeve Murphy, UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator:
“The biggest challenge obviously is the large number of people we are trying to cater for this year. In the Bekaa alone we are trying to cope with 60 thousand families, so this is a huge distribution exercise. We have many partners working with us in various locations throughout the Bekaa so we have up to three or four distributions going on, any one day.”

25 NOVEMBER 2014, BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON

12. Med shot, Um working in the kitchen
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Um Mohammed, Syrian refugee:
“I am crying all night, my eyes are puffy from crying all night, what can I do? Every day I am thinking, what can I do for them, where can I take them. My heart aches to see them like this but what can I do?”
14. Med shot, refugee camp
15. Wide shot, refugee camp

Storyline

With winter on the doorstep, UNHCR and its partners estimate that some 132,000 refugee households (660,000 people) in Lebanon will be in need of some kind of assistance during the winter to keep them warm and dry.

After a very dry summer, winter is arriving in Lebanon in full force. Thousands of Syrian refugees in this area are bracing for the cold conditions ahead.

With a sick husband in bed, Um Mohammed and her children work all day peeling garlic - earning less than a dollar a day, for over 10 hours of work. They arrived here eight months ago from Deir al-zoor, with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. The family cannot afford a waterproof cover for the ground, so rain outside leads to flooding inside.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Um Mohammed, Syrian refugee:

“This winter is so tough for us. In these two, three days we have hated our life. It’s so difficult to sleep at night, so cold. All night it’s pouring down rain on us and the tent is falling apart. It leaks from here and there, and there is mud underneath us.”

13-year-old Lamia is looking after her siblings today as her parents go to register for aid in a nearby town. Her family arrived to Lebanon four months ago with no coats, winter boots or heaters.

Once a top student at school, Lamia now spends her time doing difficult chores.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lamia, 13-year-old Syrian Refugee:

“I have to go out early in the morning to get water, it’s so cold and it’s raining. There is not even a heater I can run back to warm me up. Even the water we get from the well it’s dirty, it makes us sick.”

Aid agencies are working around the clock to distribute winter aid. This was a distribution earlier in the week. More than 10 thousand thermal blankets handed out to Syrian refugees.

SOUNDBITE (English) Maeve Murphy, UNHCR Senior Field Coordinator:

“The biggest challenge obviously is the large number of people we are trying to cater for this year. In the Bekaa alone we are trying to cope with 60 thousand families, so this is a huge distribution exercise. We have many partners working with us in various locations throughout the Bekaa so we have up to three or four distributions going on, any one day.”

Having already lost a son in the war, Um Mohammed is fearful for the rest of her family

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Um Mohammed, Syrian refugee:

“I am crying all night, my eyes are puffy from crying all night, what can I do? Every day I am thinking, what can I do for them, where can I take them. My heart aches to see them like this but what can I do?”

Aid agencies are aiming to reach everyone in need with cash assistance by the middle of December, 2014, but families who haven’t received the help yet have been caught out by the heavy rain that hit Lebanon this week.