Syrian refugee children in Lebanon carry aid provided by QRCS.
Doha: An official delegation from Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has visited Lebanon to check the progress on the winter relief projects co-launched with Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), under their bilateral cooperation agreement to provide winterisation aid for 37,500 Syrian refugees in Arsal, Lebanon.
During the visit, which started on January 26, the delegation was received by staff of QRCS mission in Lebanon.
They held a series of bilateral meetings. More importantly, it was planned to make a field visit on January 26 to Syrian refugee camps in Arsal. However, due to the weather conditions and snowfall, the visit was postponed to Friday, January 28.
In cooperation with the Lebanese Red Cross, the humanitarian aid convoy was deployed to Arsal, 120km from Beirut. It took them about five hours to arrive at the Syrian refugee camps, just to start distributing winterisation aid, including winter blankets (five per family), coronavirus prevention health kits (one per family), women’s essentials (two per family), and winterisation kits (each catering for five persons).
At Arsal camps, living conditions are almost the same, but the humanitarian team’s visit to the tent of a Syrian family with no supporter was somewhat different. The team met Aya, a young girl born in the middle of snow and rain. She told them how hard life was there, with little medication, food, and warmth.
That is partly why QFFD’s delegation went there to supervise the distribution of winterisation aid. Every winter, temperatures drop sharply in Lebanon.
Recently, the country was stricken by the Hiba snowstorm, with a wind speed of up to 100km per hour. The mountainous areas, including Arsal, were covered in snow. All of this adds to the brunt of the winter for Syrian refugees, who already cannot afford to buy heating fuel, winterwear, and other supplies.
The delegation’s agenda included interviews with some beneficiary families at Syrian refugee camps of Arsal, Bekaa. They also made a field visit to one of the camps where the tents were equipped with thermal insulation sheets.
After that, they held meetings with the team of QRCS mission in Lebanon, to discuss the ongoing projects. Another meeting was held with representatives of the Lebanese Red Cross and the Shelter Cluster Coordinator at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon.
QFFD and QRCS had signed two grant agreements to support the Syrians during the winter. Under the first agreement, the funds will go to providing winterisation aid for 30,000 beneficiaries in northwestern Syria, including heating materials, wool blankets, hygiene kits, and COVID-19 prevention supplies.
The second agreement involves digging 10 water canals and constructing 500 concrete barriers around refugee camps to reduce the risk of rainwater flow into the tents, as well as distributing blankets, winterwear, hygiene kits, and COVID-19 prevention materials. These provisions will benefit 37,500 Syrian refugees in Arsal.
