As the escalation in Lebanon worsens, Jad Assaf, Senior Humanitarian Programmes Officer with Islamic Relief Lebanon, discusses the challenges faced by those displaced by the crisis.
The current escalation of Israeli attacks on Lebanon has created a humanitarian situation even worse than the Beirut Port explosion in terms of the numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs). Approximately 1 million people have been forced to leave their homes and take refuge in shelters, with a staggering 90,000 displaced in a single night.
Each number represents a precious life
It’s very hard to witness this because we’re not just talking about numbers. They have names; they are mothers, fathers, children, brothers, sisters, who have lost everything.
Umm Ahmad, a young mother of 3, carried her children through the night to escape the bombing. She only had time to grab a few essentials, and her voice cracked as she described the fear in her children’s eyes as they fled. Like her, many families arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs and are now living in cramped spaces with limited resources.
One child, barely 6 years old, kept asking his mother, “When can we go back home, to my room? I want to ride my bicycle with my friends.” It broke my heart to see her struggle for an answer, knowing full well that they had no home left to return to.
The situation is even more difficult for people with disabilities. I saw an elderly man whose wheelchair had been stolen. We helped to get him a new wheelchair, but he is struggling as his room in the shelter is not on the ground floor.
Schools have been turned into shelters as the chaos spreads
Nor are people facing only a single hardship. Children are out of school for the foreseeable future and despite many schools having been turned into shelters, access to a shelter is difficult. People have been displaced multiple times, with individuals and families being turned away from full shelters and forced to go elsewhere. They wait in tents or even under just an umbrella until they can find somewhere to stay. People have been forced to travel up to 75km away from their homes looking for refuge.
The difficulties do not end once shelter is found. The shelters are overcrowded and there is little notion of privacy, with each room housing around 20 individuals and only a single toilet available for the whole floor. In one shelter, 180 people are sharing a single toilet. There are no separate facilities for women and girls.
Delivering life-saving aid
The team from Islamic Relief Lebanon has been on the ground, providing much-needed food parcels, ready to eat food, mattress and blankets and hygiene kits to people in need. Each food parcel contains staples such as rice, pasta, lentils, water and canned goods—enough to sustain a family for several weeks. The hygiene kits include essential items like soap, shampoo and sanitary products.
The relief on people’s faces during distributions was profound. A woman approached me with tears in her eyes, holding one of the hygiene kits. “It’s been days since I could properly bathe my children,” she said. “This means so much to us. God bless you, my child!”
As a humanitarian and an aid worker, we have our own way of dealing with the situation, whether that is going away to cry, keeping it inside until you explode or speaking to someone close to you. It’s very difficult to manage.
People in Lebanon are suffering greatly, and the crisis is worsening day by day. Please help Islamic Relief provide much-needed aid by donating to our Lebanon Emergency Appeal today.