ROMA – The conflict in Southern Lebanon is growing in intensity, the clashes and provocations between Hezbollah and Israel, previously concentrated along the border, have penetrated deeper into both sides of the border and many people are fleeing towards Nabatieh and the Bekaa Valley. On February 26, Israel, in response to Hezbollah rockets, struck Baalbek: it is the deepest aggression that the land of cedars has suffered since the 2006 war, writes the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA).
The displaced. “We have been in Nabatieh for four months, they have made an apartment available to us, in Lebanon anyone who has an extra house is offering it to those who are forced to flee, I am fine but I would like to go back to live in my house”, says a woman who together with her family, after 7 October, fled from the South where she lived near the border. It was possible to listen to it thanks to the intermediation ofNon Governmental Organization Italian AVSI, which intervenes in Southern Lebanon with a series of projects to help people in this phase of crisis. “I have five children aged 9, 13, 14, 18 and 19, my husband now works in a cooperative, for the moment the crisis in the South has only brought a transfer into my life and the inconvenience that my children cannot go to school, even if they attend classes online.” Around 50 public schools in the South have been closed since 7 October because safety conditions are lacking and because many teachers, like many students, have left. There are ten thousand children who can no longer go to school. L’International Organization for Migration (OIM) already has 90,859 internally displaced people.
Who stays. But there are also those who don’t leave the South, because they don’t want to or because they can’t. Like Abir, who together with her husband and three children aged 10 and 11 remained in Marjayoun. “I have nowhere else to go and in any case I couldn’t ask my relatives to host me for so many months,” she says. “For the moment we still live in peace here, but I’m scared because I know that things can change at any moment.” Abir’s children take online lessons, her husband is a farmer but at the moment there is no work so she spends most of her time at home. Based on satellite images analyzed by OCHA, the total land area affected by fires due to bombing in southern Lebanon is close to 1,897 hectares.
The obstacles for those who produce food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 63 percent of farmers have difficulty reaching the fields safely, 26 percent have completely abandoned crops because they have been forced to evacuate. Twenty-three percent of farmers experience a decrease in crop yield and 72 percent report income losses. These data affect the cost of living in a country that has been on the verge of bankruptcy for some years. Abir says that before October 7th she could buy a kilo of rice with 50 thousand Lebanese pounds (about 50 euro cents), today she needs at least 185 thousand (about 1.90 euros). And the same goes for tomatoes, fruit, vegetables: everything is much more expensive. Abir today attends an English course organized by AVSI which is good for her especially from a psychological point of view and receives financial support from the organization to cover all her basic needs.
The hospitals. From 7 October – document l’World Health Organization (OMS) – there were seven attacks on health facilities in southern Lebanon, seven workers died. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) underlines that a possible escalation of fighting on the southern border would put a strain on hospitals already in difficulty due to a lack of money in the context of a very serious national financial crisis. Around 60 thousand people live in the areas most exposed to conflict.
AVSI’s work. Since the conflict broke out in the Middle East, AVSI has provided online lessons to many children and cash assistance to 276 families in the Marjayoun area, say Ursula Takhshi and Mayssa Nohra, respectively Project Manager and head of the Distance Support project for children. ‘organization. In the Marjayoun district many activities have been interrupted for security reasons, but they continue remotely, adds Jihan Rahal, from the AVSI communications office. The children attend art therapy courses and a remedial program in Arabic, English and French. The organization has set up a group for psychological support aimed mainly at parents, to help them understand how to behave with their children in such a delicate historical phase and supports around 276 families with financial support to cover primary needs.
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– 2024-03-14 23:52:54
