Families fleeing shelling in Lebanon get aid from Ireland

Irish humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide has partnered with local charity Nusaned using Irish government donations to feed up to 1,000 families. They are sheltering in four schools and a university in the ancient coastal town of Tyre in the west of the country after their towns came under fire. 

“In response to the recent shelling in south Lebanon, we launched a critical emergency response in Tyre,” said Concern’s Country Director in Lebanon, Sherzada Khan.

“Around 80,000 people, forced to flee their homes due to ongoing conflict, now find themselves displaced and living in shelters without access to basic necessities.

“With Irish Aid funding, we are addressing the pressing needs of internally displaced people, including many children and elderly people.”

The aid workers are providing displaced families with three meals a day in addition to other needs like clean drinking water, mattresses, pillows, blankets and nappies. 

Lebanese families are receiving the meals in school classrooms where they sleep each night as they shelter from conflict. They said they hope for peace and being able to return to their homes.

Hussein Ali Ez Al Deen (42), who fled from his hometown on the border with Israel with his wife and three children, said: “We can't thank you enough for this act of help and I hope that the war ends so we can go back to our home.”

“I miss my home and I miss sleeping in my own bed,” added 18-year-old Lilia Mohamad Al Moussa, displaced with her parents and two younger sisters. 

“We may have lost everything, but we refuse to lose hope,” said Ali Mahmood Hasan Saa (62).

Nusaned said the project they run delivers sandwiches and meals each day to the school buildings where the displaced people are staying. Each classroom accommodates two families and is separated by room dividers. 

Concern, which has worked in Lebanon since 2013, is simultaneously responding to the needs of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian people living in the north of the country where temperatures plummet at this time of year. 

Lebanon has been host to Palestinian refugees since 1948, with an estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees currently living in Lebanon. A further 1.5 million Syrian refugees are also living in Lebanon, a country that is about the size of Munster with a population of 5.2 million. This makes it the world’s biggest host of refugees per capita. 

For more details about Concern’s work and ways to support its aid efforts in Lebanon, visit concern.net. 

ENDS

For more information, please contact Kevin Jenkinson at [email protected].