Lebanon: Living on Someone Else’s Land
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Lebanon
Syrian refugees now make up 20 percent of Lebanon’s population
No country in the world is hosting more refugees per capita than Lebanon. A country of 4.4 million people is hosting more than one million Syrian refugees.
Tensions are high. The cost of living has skyrocketed. The country has been stretched beyond its capacity to cope with so many vulnerable families.
This is where we come in.
More than 361,000 refugees have sought shelter in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, many of them living in tent settlements on rented farmland. With the crisis in its sixth year, the level of funding available to support Syrian refugees is shrinking. These families need safe and warm places to live, they need health care, education, safe drinking water, sanitation, and food. Most of them are simply trying to survive until there is peace and they can return home.
How We Help
Safe Places to Live
Medair provides families with new-arrival shelter kits, repair kits for existing shelters, and specialized shelter interventions for the elderly and disabled. We also work to improve the living conditions and safety of the settlements through site improvements and fire prevention, and we improve living conditions where refugees are renting rooms in substandard or unfinished buildings.
Health Care
Medair provides life-saving health and nutrition services to vulnerable women and children, and improves access to services for gender-based violence. We support and strengthen health clinics and the overall health system, and deliver community health promotion within the refugee settlements, including community midwives caring for pregnant women, new mothers, and their babies.
Mapping
In Lebanon, Medair identifies and maps all of the informal settlements located in Bekaa Valley, and is the lead agency for mapping the rest of the country. This mapping is utilised by the humanitarian community as an essential coordination tool so that everyone knows about areas of unmet urgent needs. This is important so that isolated families are not easily forgotten.
Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene
Medair provides safe drinking water and latrines as well as improving drainage and sanitation in the informal settlements, which means healthier places for families to live.
Our Impact
58,777
patients treated at Medair-supported health clinics
59,254
people received shelter support
6,555
people received safe drinking water
Watch our impact in Lebanon
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During the Syrian Crisis
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