It’s difficult to visualise mass displacement on this scale. But ACT Alliance Humanitarian Program Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Jana Nasr, who is based in Lebanon, brings the reality into focus.
“To put it into Australian perspective, Lebanon is the size of Greater Sydney,” Jana explains.
“And you can see how tiny it is compared to other big countries, especially that of Australia. And so that size of Greater Sydney, 15% today, is being asked to flee or leave those areas.”
As we try to imagine 15% (approximately one sixth) of Sydney’s population being forced from their homes, the scale of the displacement is horrifying. And as Jana explains, the conditions for those who are internally displaced are extremely challenging as areas are already incredibly overcrowded.
“Those over one million people displaced are having to find a home in shelters, and most of the time, these shelters are governmental schools and so they have no proper access to water or proper access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities,” she says.
“They are having to sleep in classrooms and that also disrupts the educational system, and children cannot even go to school.”
“They have no proper heating, and we have experienced one of the harshest Marchs, to ever have passed Lebanon.”
Lebanon is no stranger to conflict, but according to Jana, this recent expansion of conflict feels different.
“I am 27, and out of my 27 years of life, I think I have been at war for 13 years,” she says.
“However, how is this different than any other conflict? Unfortunately, this is much bigger at the whole regional scale. We used to be able to, when conflict happens, be able to go to different safe areas in Lebanon. Today, those safe areas are not guaranteed to be safe anymore.”
And even for Jana, the experience of war is now very close to home.
“Where I live, we can hear a lot of the hits taking place, we hear a lot of the airplanes flying low, and the missiles striking.”
“And two days ago, right next to my church, two buildings down, an apartment was bombed, while people were in the building. And so, no evacuation order came in. This is only 5 minutes away from my home, and it’s shocking, you know, it’s only two buildings away from the church. The church had at 6pm, scheduled, for Lent, scheduled weekly prayers. And so it was only one hour before those prayers, and usually we expect so many people to be attending those churches.”
The humanitarian needs are massive.
“Today, in shelters, the main humanitarian needs are definitely food,” says Jana. “It could either be food kits or ready-to-eat meals, as many do not have access to a proper kitchen. Water is very essential, either, drinking potable water or water for WASH issues.
“And most importantly, fuel. I think that people are relying heavily on fuel for heating, and today it is very much in scarcity.”
“There’s a huge need for mental health and psychosocial support, because there’s so much toll, and I know from myself how hard this has been, having to hear the constant missiles, the constant drones over your head, the constant sounds of bombs.”
Jana reports that some people who are displaced are sleeping in makeshift tents on the beach or in their cars without access to toilets or water.
Jana shares how a pregnant woman had to give birth in a shelter.
“I know of a family, who, unfortunately, the mother was pregnant upon arriving to the shelter, and have had to have her baby, inside the shelter. So, inside makeshift rooms of public schools, having very cold, cold, harsh weathers, no provision of baby formula, or diapers, or any support, or even, like, having a place to provide a proper bath for that child. And so that is extremely harsh.”
Despite the extreme challenges of operating in an active war zone, ACT Alliance forum members, who Act for Peace is supporting through our emergency appeal, are responding on the ground in Lebanon, providing much-needed humanitarian support for people who are displaced.
They are operating with extremely limited funding but are doing everything they can to provide emergency support for the most vulnerable.
“Our members are on the front line,” says Jana. “You are having members accessing very, very extreme hard-to-reach areas in the South and providing support to those areas. They are also operating with very vulnerable people, either through the shelters or supporting them with the communities that they are staying with. They are providing hot meals, ready-to-eat meals, food kits, they are providing WASH kits as well.
“For the shelters, they are providing mattresses, blankets, and pillows, and they are doing drives of, like, clothes donations to be able to support. They are also providing fuel and I think that is extremely essential.”
But without adequate funding, people who are displaced will go hungry.
“I feel like we are at a breaking point where we’re saying, if we do not give support to those people, a lot of these people would go to bed without food today,” Jana laments.
As Act for Peace continues to urgently raise funds for the Middle East Appeal, Jana calls on generous Australians to act.
“I feel people are feeling so powerless,” she says. “But what I would want to urge people to think is, if you feel how frustrating and unfair all of this is, one way of taking back your power is by supporting those that are affected the most on the ground.”
We need to act now. By giving today, you’re helping to equip trusted local organisations across the Middle East to provide life-saving emergency assistance for people who have been forced to flee their homes.
Funds are deployed through the ACT Alliance network of local partners, enabling rapid emergency assistance where it is needed most.
*Norwegian Refugee Council