This project will expand on existing health education programs run in the Sabra Mother and Child Care Centre and the purchase of medications and materials by providing funding for the period of one year.  The beneficiaries of this project will be  400 male and female children from displaced families living in four unfinished high-rise slum displacement centres known as “Gaza 1,2,3,4” on Sabra Street near Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut.  These buildings house refugee families from the latest wave of displacement.  This wave took place in 1986 during the “War of Camps” which caused hundreds of Palestinian families to run away from their homes in the refugee camps (originally established in the 1950’s) to live in underground shelters and unfinished buildings. The primary target group of this project are the children - children below the age of 15 comprise 41% of the population.  Indirectly, the mothers of the children and the families and the community the children belong to are also beneficiaries as the increased public health knowledge, vaccinations, treated drinking water, reduction of diarrhea, etc. benefit the community as a whole.

The displaced Palestinians became a special group among the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon because they are the most underprivileged.  In the city of Beirut alone, they consist of about 890 families (approx. 5,340 persons) living in eleven semi-destroyed or unfinished buildings and in unplanned, hastily-built small houses which lack any or extremely bad sanitary services.  The displacement centres in general suffer from dilapidated sewage systems and sewage overflow, polluted drinking water, high humidity, dense populations, accumulation of garbage and insect and rodent infestations.  The displacement centres are deprived of UNRWA’s sanitation services because they are located out of that agency’s geographical mandate.

All Palestinians living in Lebanon as a result of the exodus from Palestine are not considered citizens of Lebanon and therefore they are also deprived of services from the Lebanese municipalities regardless of whether or not they are of the generation(s) to be born in Lebanon.  Palestinians are not allowed to own businesses or property outside of the refugee camps nor are they allowed to hold positions in the Lebanese public sector.  They are therefore totally dependant on employment by Lebanese nationals (at times unsympathetic or antagonistic depending on the current political/economical situation) and on foreign aid and relief programs run by overseas NGO’s.  Despite the Lebanese government’s approval and ratification of the U.N’s Convention on the Rights of the Child on September 30, 1990, Palestinian children are still considered foreigners and are therefore not included in any development plans or services related to health, education, care for the disabled, etc.

Free education is provided by UNWRA for Palestinian children at both elementary and intermediate levels, but it is not compulsory and the standard of education in the UNWRA schools is continually declining.  The phenomenon of dropouts from schools is closely related to the prolonged civil war, sieges of the refugee camps, continuous displacement and the partial or total destruction of the schools.  Above all, it is the socio-economic problems, low educational standards among parents, early marriages and financial pressures that force a large number of children to seek jobs at an early age.

Limited cultural and recreational activities exist due to economical pressures and the lack of any open space for playgrounds means that small children play in the narrow, polluted streets.  The children in the displacement centres are deprived of all cultural facilities except television.  Food and security are the main priorities for these people and anything related to cultural development, apart from schooling, is a luxury with low priority.

Living in an impoverished and isolated community, these displaced children grow up deprived of their most basic physical and physiological needs.  Theirs is at best a marginalized existence with increasing feelings of rejection due to being born and living in a country but not being a “part” of it when it comes to basic human rights and the normal rights and duties and privileges of citizenship.

Thanks in large part to the programs and services run by and provided by PARD in centres such as the Sabra Mother and Child Care Centre, these children and their families are being provided with some of the basic human needs that are the birth right of every citizen of this planet, regardless of the geo-political situations which placed them in their current situation.

The specific problems being addressed by this project are:

The specific needs being addressed are:

The specific needs of women being addressed are:

The main goal of this project is to capitalize on the fact that the clinic is a natural community meeting place because of the total lack of parks, playgrounds or any other safe play/gathering areas for the children and their families.  The primary thrust is to provide entertaining and educational puppet plays for younger children on basic health topics and to provide older children with first-aid courses.  The spin-off from this is two-fold.  First, the children themselves will become well versed in basic oral hygiene, prevention of diarrhea and first aid and they will share this information with their family and friends.  Second, the mothers who accompany the children to the clinic for the puppet programs and first-aid courses will become more familiar with the clinic, staff and the various services that are offered for women and for the community.  Increasingly, the clinic will be used for routine check-ups.  Also, ineffective/dangerous folk remedies will be forgone as the clinic and the modern medical theories/practices offered there are used for the treatment/prevention of minor ailments.

The goals and objectives of the project relate directly to HUMANSERVE’s goal to serve the disadvantaged populations in Lebanon and to our commitment to development in the area of public health and education and the improvement in the quality of life of disadvantaged populations.  Our southern partner, PARD is likewise committed to providing practical, meaningful health and welfare services to the displaced Palestinian and Lebanese populations of Beirut and South Lebanon.

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