Tripoli remains the most complex city.
“It is the cradle of extreme poverty, and it is a hot spot, from a political point of view.”
Those who still manage to live in Lebanon are families supported by the Lebanese diaspora, which is made up of 15 million people who live abroad and “send money home.” Those who still manage to survive are the very wealthy who have sensed the problems and moved their money overseas.
“AVSI is working on agricultural projects and food security to ensure that Lebanese farmers do not lose the production season, and, with them, Syrian refugees so they do not lose their jobs as workers,” says Marina. “We have distributed material, soil, pots, plants, tools, seeds, and offered courses to teach people how to start an agricultural activity and create a small vegetable garden. We are also training young women to produce cheese and yogurt for family consumption, jams, bread, and pickled vegetables, and we involve the Municipalities with community cultivation programs in favor of the poorest in the rural areas of North and South Lebanon.”
Thanks to the support of UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait, and the European Union through the project “Back to the Future,” AVSI also continues to focus on young children, who by now, due to first the protests and then the pandemic, have not been able to go to school since October 2019. Over the last two years, AVSI has adapted all educational modules to distance learning, offering a great deal of support for parents who are increasingly involved in the education of their children.
“We produce and distribute masks and continue to organize activities to create awareness on how to avoid the spread of the virus, such as information sessions in informal camps for Syrians, vaccination campaigns, telephone and social media messages to beneficiaries and teachers involved in our projects and the distribution of sanitation kits (soaps), and food and recreational kits in informal camps for Syrian refugees,” lists Marina.
The only solution for the country is a political one.