Local expertise helps meet urgent needs in Lebanon

Months on from the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, the humanitarian needs remain huge. As people begin to rebuild their lives in the face of severe economic hardship, ongoing conflict and displacement, DEC charities and their local partners are still providing essential support including food, water and basic supplies.

They are also providing cash assistance and psychosocial support sessions, and financial training for small businesses as people recover their livelihoods.

At the heart of this response are local partner organisations. Many have been working with DEC charities in the affected communities in Lebanon for many years. Their expertise has enabled them to rapidly identify urgent needs, and ensure they continue to reach families with the right support.  

“Local knowledge is the foundation of any aid response. In many of the countries where we launch appeals, our member charities already have an established presence with local staff and partners who have in-depth knowledge of their communities,"  

Madara Hettiarachchi, Director of Programmes and Accountability at the DEC.

Supporting women with essential services

Association Najdeh is a local partner organisation of DEC charity Christian Aid. They have been supporting women in Beirut's southern suburbs for decades. Many are Palestinian refugees who were facing severe economic hardship and a lack of access to essential services even before the conflict escalated last year.

Leila El Ali, the Executive Director, explains how cash assistance funded by the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal has helped families to get back on their feet since the conflict escalation.

“In the cash programme, many of the women were telling us they spent the money on buying mattresses or repairing their buildings, repairing their homes. A lot of households spend the money on rent, or medication as well. Sometimes they use it for their children - on food, transportation to school and stationery.”

Fatima* is a mother of two children. Their home was damaged during the conflict last year and she received cash assistance funded by donations to the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal. 

“Everything changed after the conflict. It became harder. Before there wasn’t this difficult economic situation. After, it increased. Everything became very expensive, the prices went up a lot. People could no longer afford everything, only the basics of life," she says.

“The amount [of cash assistance] was $100, but it helped me with something. I used it to pay for repairs on the house, to replace the broken glass for one of the main windows in the bedroom. Bit by bit, I repaired things gradually as funds became available, and we fixed things little by little.”

Supporting children's mental health

The mental health impact of the conflict on children in Lebanon has been significant. Many were displaced from their homes, and many others witnessed the impact of airstrikes on their communities.

Working with local schools, DEC charity World Vision and their local partner organisation SHEILD have provided psychosocial support sessions to children and their families in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to help them process everything they have been through.

SHEILD has been working in these communities for many years, and they were able to assess urgent needs and rapidly respond as the context changed following the ceasefire agreement.

Eva Homsi is a Programme Director for SHEILD. She says:

“We believe that the main goal of our association and partnership with World Vision - under the umbrella of the DEC - is to really work within the population, not only in the conflict and emergency situation, but also in the recovery phase. This is where people are really in need of support.

“Today we believe that children are in need of mental health support. We are running psychosocial support sessions for the children in parallel with working with their parents, which we believe has a bigger impact for them as a life-saving measure, because mental health is really as important as other basic needs.”

Eva Homsi, Programme Director for local organisation SHEILD

Maryam and her children were displaced from their home when the conflict escalated. Her seven year-old daughter Zahraa attended the psychosocial support sessions at her school. Maryam explains:

“They [the children] had to leave the house and live far from their home; they heard news of people dying, houses being destroyed, homes being lost. Now if they hear a sound, they say “We’re scared, could something be happening to us?”

“We were really happy to find this project exists because parenting is becoming hard for us these days. Not because we are doing anything wrong, but because we are exposed to a lot of external pressures—psychological, social, and economic. All of this is affecting us.”

Maryam, mother of Zahraa

Local partner organisations like these are the backbone of DEC charities’ response across the region. As they face ongoing challenges delivering lifesaving support, donations to the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal are helping them to reach families now and in the weeks and months ahead.