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LEBANON / REFUGEE BASIC NEEDS
STORY: LEBANON / REFUGEE BASIC NEEDS
TRT: 2.41
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 14 MARCH 2012, BEKAA, VALLEY, LEBANON
1. Various, barefoot children in refugee camp
2. Med shot, Hana, a refugee girl, watches as supplies arrive
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hana, refugee girl:
“My name is Hana and I am ten years old. Sometimes we face many difficulties. When it rains the whole place becomes muddy and we get all wet.”
4. Various, supplies being loaded inside warehouse
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Olivier Mulet, Supply Specialist, UNICEF:
“For the Lebanon winterization activity what we look at the local market. If we could procure locally winter clothes for the children. So basically for the criteria we look at age group from zero to 14 years children. Boys and girls. And we identify a supplier in Beirut. That lets say has the capacity to supply clothes in a very short time. So we work with the supplier on the set packing schedule and for the Lebanon order we started with the first procurement of 15,000 winter clothes. And then we are moving to a phase, a scale up winterization activity looking at additional 20,000 more kits.
6. Wide shot, supply truck arrives at the camp
7. Med shot, truck on muddy track
8. Various, children waiting as supplies are unloaded
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hana, refugee girl:
“We are in need of everything. We need a clinic that when anyone gets sick then he can be cured there. We need a school. The most important thing is the school. We need a school here. School is our priority and then comes the clinic. That’s everything we need.”
10. Various, Hana and other children unpacking their new supplies
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hana, refugee girl:
“I was so happy today when I opened the box. And found in it the clothes and the boots.”
Lebanon is hosting the largest number of Syrians of any neighbouring country.
In the Bekaa region, near the border with Syria, many refugee families are living in informal settlements constructed out of scrap material. They lack basic requirements for dignity: no toilets, no areas for showering, washing or cooking, and no clean drinking water. These families have to buy drinking water, but their limited resources are dwindling while the competition for jobs has increased.
Due to the exceptionally cold winter this year, there has been an acute need
to provide children with warm clothes, blankets, and fuel for heating. And
shoes.
In this settlement, several children have been barefoot and have infected cuts and blisters on their feet. Without medical supplies, latrines or toilets, and clean water, shoes are essential to protect these children - not only from the cold and respiratory infections, but also from the health hazards in running barefooted in waste.
UNICEF Supply Specialist Olivier Mulet said that “donors, including in the private sector, have been instrumental in enabling UNICEF and its partners to provide life-saving items such as shoes, winter clothes, blankets and fuel for heating to 125,692 vulnerable children affected by the crisis.”
At another densely populated makeshift settlement on a muddy plain in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, UNICEF and a local NGO partner, Sawa, arrive to distribute winter clothes for boys and girls who have also fled the conflict in Syria.
An attentive 10-year old girl with a beaming smile sits by the truck with her younger siblings cuddled beside her, among those waiting for the distribution.
Hana and her family arrived in Lebanon by bus with nothing but some clothes and nuts.
She says, “I was very nervous. I was afraid we would get hit by shelling on the way.”
She adds, “sometimes we face difficulties. When it rains, the whole place becomes
muddy and we get all wet. We need a clinic so that when anyone gets sick they can be cured there. We need a school. That’s the most important thing, the school.”
The children at this settlement do not go to any public schools, as their parents cannot afford the transportation fees and other costs.
Many of the fathers are migrant labourers who have not been able to go back to Syria and have brought their families to safety. They have not been able, or are unwilling to register themselves as refugees, and are therefore not counted among the official 348,539 refugees from Syria registered or awaiting registration in the country.
In an emergency that has been so under-funded, the in-kind donations and funding made available for warm clothes, shoes and other items has been vital.
With a smile, Hana says, “I was so happy today when I opened the box and found in it the clothes and the boots. I was extremely happy.”
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