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STORY: LEBANON / SYRIANS UNDERGROUND GARAGES
TRT: 3.12
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 AUGUST, 2013, SAIDA, LEBANON
1.Med shot, underground shelter
2.Med shot, Syrian refugee women sitting
3.Med shot, Syrian refugee woman
4.Wide shot, Fatima with her children outside her house
5.Med shot, Fatima lifting her daughter Farah
6.Close up, Fatima as she covers her face
7.SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian Refugee:
“The kids get sick here and no-one brings them medicine, the food isn’t clean, the water comes for only a few hours a day. Electricity isn’t reliable, there are no fridges or washing machines, there is nothing good here. They built us this house but conditions are basic; it still needs work.”
8.Med shot, kids standing in shelter
9.Med shot, woman sitting
10.Med shot, clothes hanging in front of disused room
11.Wide shot, woman stands in front of house holding child
12.Wide shot, woman with child
13.Med shot, Ali Adnan talking to children
14.Close up, boy listening
15.SOUNDBITE (English) Ali Adnan Basma, Architect, American University of Beirut
“When I first came, the situation was really drastic, it was sewage all over the place, people sleeping outside because they cannot resist the heat inside and bad ventilation conditions, hygiene was not even found, diseases were all over the place, people were so crowded over each other, if someone gets a disease it will spread. It was not a place that any human being could live in.”
16. Close up, boy face as he unfurls cable
17. Close up, cables
18. Med shot, workers pulling cable outside room
19. Med shot, man drilling
20. Close up, drill
21. Med shot, Abdel Farid watching drilling
22. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdel Farid, Syrian Refugee
“Before we used to bring water from the spring nearby, but now we have running water here. Before we didn’t have electricity but now they have installed it. Now they have organized everything for us. Before it was so difficult for us, now things are so much better.”
23. Med shot, Abdel Farid with his son
24. Close up, Abdel Farid with his son
25. Close up, Fatima
26. Med shot, Fatima looks at her daughter, Farah
27. Med shot, Farah
28. Close up, Farah
29. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian Refugee:
“All I want is for my daughter to get medical treatment, she is just a child and she needs treatment. If the situation hadn’t got so bad we would have been able to treat her in Syria. My husband had a job and he was paying for the treatment. But we had to leave everything behind, we have nothing there now.”
30. Wide shot, Fatima outside her house with her children
31. Close up, girl having her hair brushed
32. Wide shot, woman brushing her daughter’s hair
33. Wide shot, refugee kids at the shelter
This derelict underground garage is an unlikely place to find shelter, yet it is where over 1,300 Syrian refugees live.
Fatima arrived here six months ago. Relatives told her they had found a refuge, but nothing prepared here for the reality she would encounter.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian Refugee:
“The kids get sick here and no-one brings them medicine, the food isn’t clean, the water comes for only a few hours a day. Electricity isn’t reliable, there are no fridges or washing machines, there is nothing good here. They built us this house but conditions are basic; it still needs work.”
Lebanon is a small country. Finding shelter is a struggle, so places like these have been turned into living spaces.
Each family gets a small space which UNHCR partners MEDRAR and The Community Development Project have worked hard to make more liveable.
SOUNDBITE (English) Ali Adnan Basma, Architect, American University of Beirut
“When I first came, the situation was really drastic, it was sewage all over the place, people sleeping outside because they cannot resist the heat inside and bad ventilation conditions, hygiene was not even found, diseases were all over the place, people were so crowded over each other, if someone gets a disease it will spread. It was not a place that any human being could live in.”
The open sewers were covered up, more bathrooms were put in and partitions were built.
Today renovations are taking place at Abdel Farid’s house.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdel Farid, Syrian Refugee
“Before we used to bring water from the spring nearby, but now we have running water here. Before we didn’t have electricity but now they have installed it. Now they have organized everything for us. Before it was so difficult for us, now things are so much better.”
In this damp and cramped place, small comforts matter.
These are battles won, but there are many more to take on.
Fatima’s husband doesn’t work so she has to feed her family of 8 on food vouchers, yet her greatest challenge is youngest daughter Farah.
Without a cornea transplant Farah will never be able to see.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima, Syrian Refugee:
“All I want is for my daughter to get medical treatment, she is just a child and she needs treatment. If the situation hadn’t got so bad we would have been able to treat her in Syria. My husband had a job and he was paying for the treatment. But we had to leave everything behind, we have nothing there now.”
Farah and Fatima are not alone. There are nearly 700,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon now.
Local health facilities are being pushed to the limit. UNHCR says more funding is desperately needed.
