A Country Under Tremendous Strain
Despite its limited infrastructure, the Lebanese people have been generous in giving refuge to Syrian families seeking safety.
- More than 1.5 million Syrian refugees now live in Lebanon. That's one quarter of the country’s entire population- a burden almost no country can adequately endure or accommodate.
- Energy, water, sanitation and communication systems are stretched to their limits. And in some locations these systems are inadequate to meet the needs of both Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees.
- The country’s social services – healthcare and education – are overwhelmed.
Both Syrian refugees and Lebanese citizens are increasingly falling prey to hunger, poor health and poverty. With no jobs to earn a living and their savings dwindling away, refugees face a downward spiral into poverty that they and their children may not recover from.
Despite the turmoil, there’s a lot you can do right now to help.
Your Donations Make A Difference
IOCC began working in Lebanon in 2001, helping families impacted by the Lebanese civil war. Children’s health and education needs continue to be at the forefront of our ongoing efforts.
With your donation, we're able to distribute:
- Dry food parcels
- Personal hygiene kits (soap, washcloths, combs, etc.)
- Infant kits (diapers, blankets, clothing, etc.)
- Winter kits (blankets, heating stoves for tent shelters, heating fuel).
Your generosity helps us provide more refugee settlements with access to clean water, bathing and toilet facilities, and classes on good hygiene practices. Thanks to you we are curbing malnutrition in Syrian refugee children and giving them access to healthcare and education opportunities.
Stories and Facts: How You Help
- Supplementing school lunch meals, because a well-fed and healthy child performs better in school. This is done in cooperation with the country’s Ministry of Education and United Nations World Food Programme.
- More than 100 public schools are being rehabilitated to improve learning conditions for children in Lebanon.
- Monzer, age 13, is a refugee from Syria, whose family fled with nothing. Monzer loves school and because of you he and other refugee students can continue learning at one of the Lebanese public schools renovated by IOCC.
- With your help, IOCC is creating a strong national mother and child nutrition program in Lebanon, designed to improve and protect the health and nutritional well-being of all Lebanese children for generations to come. The program focuses on the child’s development from conception until two years of age.
- In partnership with the Ministry of Public Health IOCC is training public health workers in 216 primary healthcare centers how to screen young children for malnutrition and strengthen the government’s capacity to be more responsive to any emergencies with nutrition issues.
In the last few years Lebanon has received more refugees from neighboring Syria than any other country. Refugees now comprise about 25% of the entire population.
Thanks to supporters like you, IOCC is responding to the humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees living throughout Lebanon.
- Malnutrition is a life-threatening problem among refugee children under age five. Each day is a struggle to survive in unsanitary camps with little food and no clean water. With your support, IOCC has screened and treated more than 100,000 Syrian refugee children for malnutrition.
- IOCC-trained nutrition workers put their knowledge to work in the field, teaching refugee mothers the importance of nutrition and breastfeeding practices in times of emergency.
- Safe water is essential for Syrian refugees living in Lebanon’s informal settlements. Two refugee settlements (approximately 4,300 people) now have access to clean water, communal bathing and toilet facilities, and classes for mothers and children to learn how to prevent diseases through good hygiene practices like handwashing, trash disposal, and food handling.
- Thanks to donors like you, more than 1,000 Assyrian Christian families exiled from their homes in Syria are receiving food, housing assistance and educational support .
Your Gift At Work - Meet Melhem
Four-year-old Melhem was withering away from a poor diet. His family fled from Syria to Lebanon with little money to buy nourishing food. Without help, he faced a slow and painful death. Less than three months after entering IOCC’s malnutrition treatment program, Melhem has regained weight and his health. See Melhem's transition.