Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoLEBANON / AL-BIDDAWI PALESTINE REFUGEE CAMP
STORY: LEBANON / AL-BIDDAWI PALESTINE REFUGEE CAMP
TRT: 05:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 12 JULY 2024, AL-BIDDAWI CAMP FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES, NORTH LEBANON
1. Walking shot, tractor and moped driving up empty camp street in the early morning
2. Wide shot, woman cleaning street in front of her shop
3. Wide shot, children talking on side of street
4. Wide shot, girl sitting on steps in front of her apartment building
5. Wide shot, kids walking in street
6. Med shot, UNRWA poster on preserving water resources
7. Close up, stale bread left on top of electric box
8. Med shot, cat laying down on side of road
9. Wide shot, Palestinian flag raised over market street
10. Close up, young produce vendor placing cucumbers in bag
11. Med shot, sheep standing inside butcher shop
12. Wide shot, vendor setting up his shop
13. Close up, electrical wires form a web that rats to climb into apartments
14. Med shot, entrance into an apartment in Biddawi camp
15. Close up, broken TV
16. Med shot, family kitchen in apartment with window blocked by adjacent building
17. Close up, empty unplugged fridge
18. Wide shot, single bedroom in apartment where 10 family members live
19. Wide shot, washed clothes hug on balcony
20. Tilt up, buildings within a few meters of each other
21. Wide shot, single bedroom in apartment where 10 family members live
22. Close up, UNRWA health centre signage
23. Wide shot, young man entering UNRWA health centre
24. Wide shot, Abdul Sattar Hasan walking to health centre reception
25. Med shot, Abdul Sattar Hasan at health centre reception
26. Wide shot, mothers and their children in waiting area
27. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdul Sattar Hasan, 67-year-old cancer survivor and patient at UNRWA health centre:
“It is not that they treat me well and respect me more because I’m an elderly man. No, I notice this their treatment to all the people. It is excellent, classy, and humane. You get the feeling that employees here aren’t working to get a salary. They are working to deliver a message, and this is something that I respect and very much appreciate”.
28. Wide shot, Abdul Sattar Hasan walking into Dr. Mohamed Badran’s exam room
29. Wide shot, Dr. Mohamed Badran tending to patients
30. Med shot, Abdul Sattar Hasan sitting in Dr. Mohamed Badran’s exam room
31. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Mohamed Badran, Head of the UNRWA health centre in Al-Biddawi refugee camp:
“Working for UNRWA to provide these services to our people who are suffering from tough living and economic issues is the least I can do. They are in need for any services that can be provided to them, especially when it comes to healthcare which is a basic necessity”.
32. Wide shot, Dr. Mohamed Badran examining Abdul Sattar Hasan
33. Med shot, Dr. Mohamed Badran speaking Abdul Sattar Hasan
34. Wide shot, Dr. Mohamed Badran speaking Abdul Sattar Hasan
35. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Mohamed Badran, Head of the UNRWA health centre in Al-Biddawi refugee camp:
“As a Palestinian refugee, I see UNRWA as the mark of our refugee status. As long as there is a question of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA must exist because it is responsible to provide basic services to Palestinian refugees, including health, education, and general relief and social services. In brief, so long as there is a question Palestinian refugees, UNRWA must exist in parallel”.
36. Wide shot, Dr. Mohamed Badran speaking Abdul Sattar Hasan
37. Wide shot, sign explain the services available at the UNRWA health centre
38. Med shot, Dr. Husam Ghuniem working
39. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Husam Ghuniem, chief of health in North Lebanon, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA):
“We have a real demand for this (hospitalization subsidies) because any Palestinian who needs to be admitted to a hospital - if UNRWA did not exist would lead to a catastrophe. We would surely see deaths among our patients because the cost of hospitalization in Lebanon is very high, and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon do not have any other type of insurance, including the Ministry of health. They are not covered at all. Therefore, this is a an essential service that we provide, and we aspire to expand the percentage covered for our people”.
40. Med shot, Dr. Husam Ghuniem working
41. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Husam Ghuniem, chief of health in North Lebanon, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA):
“So far, we are meeting the bare minimum. Everyday we receive demands from people, because as you know the needs have sharply risen because of the deteriorated economic condition in Lebanon – which has resulted in a loss of job opportunities for the even for Lebanese citizens, so what about Palestinians who cannot work in over 70 professions in the first place. In the current conditions, the vast majority of our people don’t have an alternative. They are primarily reliant on UNRWA.”
42. Wide shot, Dr. Husam Ghuniem working
43. Wide shots, streets in the Al-Biddawi refugee camp
44. Med shot, stand selling chocolates on the side of a street
45. Wide shot, people walking in street
46. Driving shot, busy streets following Friday prayer in Al-Biddawi refugee camp
On the outskirts of Lebanon’s second capital Tripoli lies a Palestinian refugee camp that is almost as old as their plight itself. The Biddawi Camp for Palestine Refugees was established in 1955 to host many of those who had been forcibly displaced from the Upper Galilee and northern coastal cities during what is known as the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe. Since then, its population has ballooned as violence continued to haunt the stateless population, from the Lebanese civil war to the war in Syria, which resulted in a flood of Syrian and Palestinian refugees across the border into the tiny Mediterranean country.
The narrow and destitute streets are symbolic of the struggle to survive here. In this single kilometre squared, more than 21,000 Palestinians live alongside many impoverished Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees, according to the UN’s Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA).
As is the case with many of the deprived neighborhoods surrounding the camp, work has become scarce for its population following the economic crisis that has engulfed Lebanon since late 2019, and even those who do work are barely making ends meet.
UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri recently visited the camp and met with Ahmad*, an unemployed father of eight who suffers from several chronic illnesses. Too proud to reveal his true name, he told our colleague that rats often climb the random electrical wires that have formed webs all the way up from the street level to his 4th floor one-bedroom apartment. Despite the windows being block by other slum buildings in close proximity, they keep them open in an effort to ease the scorching heat. The family doesn’t own a fan to hook to little electricity their receive from their neighbor as a charity.
A look into their empty unplugged fridge is proof that this family goes many nights without dinner. Ahmad said he often can’t find anyone to lend him money until some relief comes from UNRWA’s cash assistance. The Agency provides him with 50 USD per child under 18 years of age every 12 weeks, and even this amount had recently been reduced to 30 USD due to budgetary issues, before more funding was made available.
“A home cooked meal costs no less than one million lira ($11.17). My eldest son has a speech impediment. I tried to send him to learn a trade, but they were making fun of him, so now he is sitting at home without a future. There are many people in this camp who are living in similar conditions and are also too proud to ask for hand-outs. May God ease the suffering of all people.”
UNRWA is doing what it can to support the Palestinian population in the Biddawi camp and across the entire region, as mandated by General Assembly resolution 302. The UN agency has taken over the vast majority of civil affairs - offering education, health, protection, and social services - while security and governance in the camp are the responsibility of Popular Committees and Palestinian factions.
The camp’s only UNRWA run health facility has 28 staff members – all of whom are Palestinian refugees themselves. It serves 400 to 500 patients daily, providing a wide array of services from dental and optical care to general medicine and specialized consultations. While there, UN News spoke to Dr. Husam Ghuniem, UNRWA’s chief of health in North Lebanon, who explained the vital importance of the services being provided to Palestinian refugees here.
“If UNRWA disappeared tomorrow, there would be a catastrophe in this camp, because we don’t have any other humanitarian actor that can and does provide the level of assistance that UNRWA is providing."
In addition to services provided at the center, Dr. Ghuniem explained that UNRWA has contracts with 7 Lebanese government and private hospitals, as well as the Palestinian Red Crescent hospital, through which it covers the majority secondary and tertiary care expenses, which can be extremely costly in Lebanon. And even so, most Palestinian struggle to pay their share. (4:58) “The economic deterioration has led to a lack of work opportunities even for Lebanese citizens, so how about the Palestinians that were already not allowed to work in over 70 professions”, he insisted.
The UNRWA official highlighted the battle of cancer patients. He explained that the agency covers 75 percent of the cost of medication, the majority of which cannot be subsidized by the Lebanese Government for Palestinian refugee patients; and with most of them unable work, the costs can truly be unbearable.
Dr Ghuniem stressed that the question of Palestine refugees is what perpetuates the need for UNRWA to exist. He said he takes pride in being able to serve his community through UNRWA.
“UNRWA’s existence is the only witness to our Nakba (Catastrophe) and to our refugee status since 1948 until today. It defends us and provides us with our basic needs until we can return to our lands God willing”, he added.
This sentiment was echoed by Dr. Mohamed Badran, the head of the UNRWA health centre in the Al-Biddawi camp. “As a Palestinian refugee, working for UNRWA to provide these services to our people who are suffering from tough living and economic issues is the least I can do”.
Dr Badran stressed in an interview with UN News that UNRWA is the mark of the plight of Palestinian refugees. “In brief, so long as there is a question Palestinian refugees, UNRWA must exist in parallel”.
67-year-old Abdul Sattar Hasan is the descendant of a refugee from the village of Sepphoris - northwest of Nazareth – and has been coming to this health center for over 22 years. He is a cancer survivor himself and suffers from a long list of chronic diseases. He told UN News: “Thank God. God has blessed me with a number of diseases. If I tried to count them, I would surely forget some.”
Mr. Hasan said he takes comfort in the fact that all the staff at the UNRWA health center treat their patients humanely.
“It is not that they treat me well and respect me more because I’m an elderly man. No, I notice this their treatment to all the people. It is excellent, classy, and humane. You get the feeling that employees here aren’t working to get a salary. They are working to deliver a message, and this is something that I respect and very much appreciate”.
Download
There is no media available to download.
Related Content
UN / LAZZARINI INTERVIEW
