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Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is the leading organization for newly arrived refugees in Lebanon. DRC assists 25 percent of the newly arrived refugees but despite the massive effort, more assistance is still needed. Only 40 percent of the refugees are reached – across the efforts from the different NGOs in the country.
Patched together from old coffee sacks from Brazil, pallets, recycled wood, tarpaulins and other available materials, the tented settlement seemed chaotic and disorganized. To keep the fabric in place, many refugees had catapulted old tires on top of their roofs. Here and there hoses for water supply entered and left tents, connecting makeshift toilets made out of corrugated iron sheets. The tents were so close that the risk of spreading infectious diseases and fire was imminent. In winter many of these settlements will flood. The tents are impossible to keep warm and often collapse when snow falls. Originally the tented settlements were used as summer homes for Syrian migrant workers, but today both the number and size of the camps is growing by the day, and no one knows when the return of refugees will be possible. In the Bekaa Valley alone it is estimated that 22 percent of the refugees live this way. This is more than 30.000 people. With a steadily increasing number of refugees arriving in Lebanon there is a great risk of many more ending up in settlements like these.
In the informal tented settlement, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) briefed the ECHO Commissioner, Kristalina Georgieva, on the situation of newly arrived refugees. As leading organization for newly arrived refugees in Lebanon, the Danish Refugee Council gave a brief on the situation and humanitarian assistance. In Lebanon, DRC is assisting about 20.000 newcomers every month, which represents 25% of all arrivals. This makes DRC the leading agency on the emergency response to newly arrived refugees. During the reception process refugees receive an emergency aid kit, and DRC carries out a rapid protection assessment. This assessment gives insight to the situation and makes it possible to better coordinate the humanitarian response to the most vulnerable refugees. Unfortunately, the picture is clearly a huge gap between humanitarian assistance and the needs of refugees.
“I would like to stress that even though DRC is assisting 25 percent of the newly arrived refugees every month, we are still reaching less than 40 percent when you sum up the efforts of all NGO’s in Lebanon. Out of 80.000 people it means almost 50.000 people is not assisted by the international community – every month. Often arriving with nothing except the clothes on their back, the aid kit for newcomers is the only help the refugees will receive until they are registered with UNHCR. This takes from one to several months. Local communities also respond on ad hoc basis with small packages of food, mattresses and whatever is available, but it is very limited. To this we need to add all the other difficulties facing the refugees, including a safe place to stay,” says Olivier Beucher, DRC Lebanon Country Director.
The aid kit for newly arrived refugees consists of:
1 food parcel
1 cooking gas stove
1 dignity kit (for women)
1 hygiene kit
1 kitchen set
4 mattresses
1 blanket per family member
In winter, a winter kit is added.
On average the value of a kit is about 300 USD. Because of the rapidly growing refugee population DRC has problems in sustaining sufficient funding for the emergency kits. By today’s estimate 120.000 kits are necessary for the remaining part of 2013. This demands about 36 million USD without considering costs of procuring, transporting and distributing the kits.
