Programs & Projects

Lebanon (including Palestinian refugees)


Education

• Since April 2008, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development, in partnership with the Women’s Program Center in the Beddawi Palestinian Refugee Camp near Tripoli, Lebanon, has been providing vocational training to orphans and other vulnerable youth.  Six-month courses offered at the center include basic computer software, computer and cell phone maintenance, hair cutting, sewing and basic accounting.
  
  In April 2008, Mercy-USA also provided the women's center with an electric generator, two computers, a copy machine, two heat/air-conditioning units, and supplies specific for the training courses.
  

Health Improvement

• Since May 2008, Mercy-USA has been supporting enhanced pediatric and obstetric care for vulnerable women and children in the village of Kfar Chouba in south Lebanon.  Mercy-USA is providing the local clinic with a pediatrician and an obstetrician, as well as needed medicines.  A permit from the Ministry of Education is being obtained so regular monthly checkups can be provided to children attending the public school next to the clinic.
  
  In December 2008 and January 2009, Mercy-USA repaired the clinic's roof, which had been leaking.  The repair involved pouring a new 1,415 square-foot layer of cement and then covering this cement with a new layer of asphalt as insulation.
  
  In April 2008, Mercy-USA provided the Kfar Chouba clinic with an ultrasound examination machine and related peripherals, an examination chair for women, a delivery chair, a Doppler pulse monitor for checking fetal heart beats, and other obstetric and gynecological equipment.

Food and Shelter

• From June to October 2007, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development's office in Lebanon provided relief to approximately 25,000 displaced residents of the Nahr Al-Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon. From August to October 2007, Mercy-USA distributed 9,000 floor mats to all displaced Nahr Al-Bared families (approximately 22,000 persons) temporarily sheltered in the Beddawi Palestinian Refugee Camp.  These mats, which are especially prized during the summer months, provide a safe, clean sitting area for four to five people; also, two to three persons can sleep on them.  They are used both indoors and outdoors, and are easy to clean and carry.  Please click here for pictures and more details.
  
  During June 2007, Mercy-USA distributed drinking water, floor mats and hygiene packages to 740 displaced Nahr Al-Bared families (about 3,400 persons) sheltered in the Beddawi Camp.  The hygiene packages provided to these families consisted of towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, detergent, disinfectant and other hygiene items.  Clinics in the camp received anti-lice spray.            

  Mercy-USA’s relief workers provided the drinking water, floor mats and hygiene packages to 500 families housed in four schools (Al-Nasreh, Majdal, Nahr Al-Ardon and Kawakab) run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and also to 240 displaced families that were living with host families in Beddawi Camp.
  
  Fighting, that began in May 2007, left approximately 30,000 of Nahr al-Bared’s residents homeless.  UNICEF estimated that about half of them were children.
  
  
  

• During early March 2007, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development’s office in Lebanon distributed heating oil to 55 schools in the Bekaa Valley (Hermel and Baalbek) and in Kfar Gooz in the south.  Over 15,000 children and their teachers benefited from this project that provided them with warm classrooms in which to learn and develop.  Click here for a detailed list of schools that received this assistance.
  
  

                                                            

                                                                                  Click here to see more pictures from the school heating project.
  

• From October 2006 to January 2007, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development’s office in Lebanon assisted approximately 7,500 vulnerable Lebanese civilians and Palestinian refugees. 

During this period, Mercy-USA completed the following projects:

1) Provision of heating oil to more than 400 families (over 2,000 persons) in the Bekaa Valley (Baalbek, Hermel, and seven villages in the Western Bekaa) and the town of Kfar Chouba in south Lebanon.  The heating oil kept these families warm during the cold winter months.

2) Provision of winter jackets to 1,300 young schoolchildren in the Baalbek and Hermel areas.  These jackets helped them to stay warm while studying in classrooms that had minimal heating or no heating at all.

3) Distribution of 125 one-month food packages to vulnerable families in the Tripoli area of northern Lebanon and an additional 125 one-month food packages to needy families in the Badawi Palestinian refugee camp.

4) Distribution of fresh lamb meat to 304 vulnerable families in Beirut, Sidon, Tyre and Tripoli and an additional 304 needy families in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra, Ein El-Hilwi, Rashidieh and Badawi.

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