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Those pictures were taken at the site management training session. We were with 20 participants from different NGO’s. Victoria is the Norwegian trainer I talked about yesterday.
The question now is: What shall we do with the gathered information? How shall we apply what we learned?
I was planning to go to Sour (Tyre) this weekend, but apparently this would not be wise. One thing is certain: There will be many ways in which we will be able to help. So now we have to plan and discern and then act.
We just finished the 3-days training from the Ministry of Social Affairs. A very professional training! We learned much about the camp management and all its consequences. Victoria and Hans, our 2 trainers, have so much experience in war emergency relief and camp/site management. It is astounding to see that there are so many aspects Internally Displaced Persons (called IDP) share all over the world, whether they are in Sri Lanka or Lebanon.
As you can see in the second column of this blog, there is a new link, called SAVE LEBANON. When you click on it you will discover a blog about archbishop Georges Bacouni. I have known Msgr. George for a long time, he was a seminarian when I got to know him and we stayed in touch over the years. He then became priest and was responsible for the University Pastoral care of Youth. He was ordained bishop last October 2005 and appointed to Tyre (Sour). At 44 years he is the youngest bishop in the country, a very integer man. He now suffers along with his fellow citizens from all the damages the war has left them. Take a look and decide what to do for yourself.
The Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) invited staff/volunteers from our organisation to a three-day core training in Site/Community Management, as a part of the Emergency Site/Community Management training programme. The training is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is conducted by international experts. A first session was held from 21-23 Aug. The second training session is currently taking place from 24-26 Aug. A third training session now takes place in Sin El Fil – Beirut, from Monday the 28th to Wednesday the 30th of August, from 9am to 4:30pm every day. Addition training sessions are planned in other parts of Lebanon at a later stage.
Several trainings, with 20 participants attending each session, are taking place in Lebanon. The working language is English and Arabic. Participants are selected among staff/volunteers that are currently involved in management and assistance in the IDP sites or might be involved at a later stage. The main objective of the training is to train staff/volunteers of the national authorities, international/national NGOs and UN agencies involved in Site/Community Management under the current situation, and to reach a common understanding on how Site/Community Management should be carried out in the different locations.
So today I attended the first of those 3 days and it is really interesting, given the fact that the norwegian trainers are experts in site management. They say that there are so many common things in this management and yet they are open to the specific Lebanese context. It is an enriching experience for all participants. We are able to discuss the past war experience and learn from it in a professional way, in order to evaluate and be more prepared if – God forbids- there would be a recurrency.
Yesterday night I went to St. George School at the outskirts of Bikfaya. This school welcomed lots of christian families from the border villages. As those displaced can not yet go back to their villages because they have lost their homes, they remain at the school. There’s a daily mass and some NGO’s helped them with food, as well as other local organizations. Yesterday night all the families had prepared supper together and shared it with the different donors and some friends. It was à la Libanaise: taboulé, Manakish a Saj, all home made stuff and the atmosphere was very relaxed. The kids had prepared a theater play and there was some dancing. A moment of joyful forgetting what war had caused them.
I met Pascal, he’s about 14 years old and his parents were killed in Qana when their apartment collapsed. He now lives with his maternal uncle. He suffers from Down syndrome. He is well aware that his parents died, when the priest asked him what he wanted to pray he said: the Our Father. When he asked him what he wants he said: I wish to have my daily bread. When you meet Pascal, you can not but smile, he’s very joyful and likes to serve and carry things.
This is the well-known ad of Johnnie Walker. I do not wish to promote this ad for whisky. Not at all, I just want to show how Lebanese react to such traumatic events like “war”. Some try to assimilate events in making jokes out of it. Bridges are not supposed to be interrupted at a given moment. In Lebanon so many bridges have been destroyed so…Behold the Lebanese adapted Johnnie Walker
I watched Euronews yesterday, as I usually do. I learned about the Russian plane crash with its 170 victims. I remark how an army of experts is now accompanying the relatives of the victims in order to assist them: First aid, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and I applaud this. People need to be assisted in such a traumatic event.
Then, involuntarily, I compare with the situation here.
I also watched Télé-Lumière yesterday night. I didn’t watch it from the beginning but I saw a priest hosting 2 psychiatrists: Dr. John Fayyad and Dr. Aimé Karam. They talked about the war and how it affects children and other people. Some kids are less affected by war than others. The ones more affected are:
- Kids already having psychological problems from before
- Those who witnessed personally death from a close relative or from someone they cherish, or they assisted at a very violent event such as the destruction of their house, or a bomb explosion in front of them.
- Those whose parents have marital problems or coming from unstable families.
This will influence their behavior at school and at home. According to Dr. John, very often children will suffer from separation anxiety. We have to know that in Lebanon as in many other countries there is still a kind of “taboo” concerning seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist. So in fact we have to work on that when we notice a kind of strange, persisting behavior. The media with its sophisticated technology showed us many horrible events in all its aspects, with blood and cruelty. So children just like adults and young adults were watching these scenes all over again.
I know the government plans a psychological program. But who will be able to profit from this? When will it really be implemented? Children need it now. I mention children considering them being a vulnerable part of society. But of course I include everyone needing expert assistance. Parental attention is very important regarding the experts of this program. Not just being around as a parent but communicating with their children.
When we used to play with the children from displaced families at the 2 schools near Ayadina, we noticed that some of the kids were behaving over-violently. Others just blacked out and sat still, not moving or changing their facial expression for days.
Don’t you think those children need assistance?
Aren’t they traumatized victims just like the relatives of the plane crash in Russia?
Today was an unforeseen day of home visitation. I had been to Dbayeh to visit a friend who’s going to England tomorrow to assist at the delivery of her daughter’s first baby-girl. Then suddenly came the question of YFC (Youth For christ) whether I could come with them and visit some families of displaced still present in the area. And that’s what we did, just visiting the families…we heard about the olive harvest and the burnt fields, about the destroyed houses, the hope and despair of families with children.
One of the main problems now is the following: The families that hosted displaced are really broke, do not have anything left for themselves and they also need to go on. Is there a way to help them or how? The municipality is making the statistics of those families, still hosting displaced relatives.
This article is from a friend of mine Nasser Yassin. I had the opportunity to work with him on a PRA in Nabaa’ during the month of May 06. He currently lives in London but is originally from the village of Karoun (Lebanon). He writes for the Electronic Lebanon, 16 August 2006. Please feel free to comment!
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| The coast road from Beirut to Khader, demolished by an Israeli air strike on the 13th of July. (MaanImages/ Raoul Kramer) |
As soon as the UN resolution 1701 became effective on the morning of Monday 14th of August, partisan journalists embarked on propagandising the victory; politicians ran debates on performance and political outcomes of this war, military experts turned to assess the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of their weapons, and diplomats continued to debate the meaning of each word in the UN resolution. Lebanese civilians, however, were left to face the harsh reality of this destructive war.
Lebanese civilians especially those from South Beirut, South Lebanon and Bekaa walked back to their villages and cities to discover their houses either destroyed or damaged. Whole neighbourhoods in Beirut suburbs were scorched. Some of the quarters in the southern cities of Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh, and Tyre have witnessed mass destruction of unprecedented scale. Tens of villages in South Lebanon, as journalists and humanitarian workers have reported, have been wiped out.
There are no exact figures yet on the degree of destruction, and it will take some time until the relief and assessment teams reach villages and towns to count the damages. But early estimates show that the overall losses to housing and small business properties are likely to exceed the total for the country’s 15-year civil war (1975-1990). Lebanese government officials say that up to 200,000 Lebanese could be homeless. This means roughly that around 40.000 families will be roofless, a frightening figure in a small country of 3.6 million.
The magnitude of this housing crisis puts some serious matters on the Lebanese government’s table. With around 5.6 % of the population expected to be homeless, the issue should also receive some up-most attention from civil society organisations, International Governmental Organisations (IGOs) as well as the private sector.
It is wise from the beginning to acknowledge the weak role that the Lebanese state has so far played in the housing sector. Housing has so far been run by the market mechanisms with minimal government intervention. The Housing Foundation, a governmental agency, is the only government body that works in the housing sector albeit only through cooperating with private banks on devising loan mechanisms.
Not unwise as well to admit the unsuccessful past experiences in some of the post-conflict housing initiatives that the Lebanese government has previously employed. Programmes such as those aimed at rebuilding and/or compensating those with damaged or destroyed properties were not ideal. Initiatives were geographically and thematically fragmented as it was the case in the ‘Council of the South’, ‘Central Fund for Displaced’, and ‘Ministry of Displaced’. Poor monitoring and shady practices were often reported .
The available options for post-conflict housing reconstruction, I would argue are three:
Firstly, government direct intervention through existing bodies such as ‘Council of the South’ and the ‘Ministry of Displaced’ to construct houses and properties. Previous experience has shown, however, that this option is not ideal. Direct government intervention has often failed to deliver compared to the private sector and direct intervention is often crippled by the weak governmental agencies.
Secondly, the ‘privatisation’ option through offering financial assistance to those who lost their houses in order to reconstruct them. This was mostly practiced by the ‘Central Fund for the Displaced’ in Beirut and in some areas in Mount Lebanon. Though it was effective in paying for the illegal occupants to move out, it was not the best option with its lack of transparency. Stories of corrupt practices and channelling monies for political reasons were reported. Privatisation of reconstruction has also led, as past experiences have showed, to a building mess that took less consideration for urban master plans and the spatial fabric.
Thirdly, an ‘independent agency’ for the reconstruction of the July 2006 war destruction. This sounds to be the most sensible option at the moment. Such agency should be set-up to include a tripartite public – private – community partnership with a mandate to design new urban and rural master plans, to sub-contract reconstruction projects preferably through municipal authorities – especially of the totally destructed areas – and to offer financial assistance for individuals wishing to rebuild themselves. Giving this agency the authority to plan, fund and build will save funds and minimize the duplication that is often seen in post-conflict rehabilitation projects. It will also ensure the standards and quality of reconstruction according to a unified master plan. Municipalities and local communities should be the backbone of this initiative for their role as local authority and knowledge of needs at the local level. Private sector through banks and financial institutions could play a major role in speeding-up the construction process. They could provide funds to this agency at low rates that would match governmental and international funds.
Whatever options the Lebanese government adopt, it has to come out with exceptional policies and sound practices and to employ an exceptionally rapid response to this crisis. Foremost need is the formulation of the right governance structure that would framework the post-conflict reconstruction process. From the beginning the government should set-up a mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability. Information-sharing and openness to the public should be paramount. In each reconstruction step, it is vital to involve local authorities such as municipalities, community representatives and civil society organisations as well as the private sector. The activities of international organisations, whether in lending or in implementing, should be properly channelled through one central body to avoid duplication and poor practices.
Nasser Yassin is an Associate Fellow in the Hague-based Institute for Environmental Security and researcher in urban development. Email: nasser.yassin@gmail.com
Yesterday at the christian TV channel Télé-Lumière, there was a program about how people survived this war; the ones who stayed in their villages and others who fled to Beirut. As this is a christian channel they focused on how these events affected the people’s faith. It was really moving to see and hear how men women and elderly testified. It shows me again that man in general has a religious nature and that Lebanese in particular are people of faith.
As of today the distribution stopped in Ayadina – because the displaced have left – , I’m going as a volunteer this afternoon to another place where distributions are still on.
Every Saturday I listen to a program on “la voix de la charité” from the”Hidden Monastery” with its spiritual counselor Father Jean-Marie. It is always very practical about how living the faith in daily life and it’s for disabled, abled and their friends.
Today he had 2 guests, 2 women from villages at the borderline with Israel, Kawzah and Rmeich. Those 2 mothers of 6 and 4 grown-up children, gave a testimony of how they lived those very difficult days of war. They even had to eat the food they had stocked for their cattle, that was killed and their houses destroyed but they just kept up the good faith and kept trusting in the Lord. So they came out of this experience renewed and stronger, WITHOUT any grudge. I was moved by this way of coping with life and its difficulties.
We can all learn from them!
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