Humanitarian

Four years on, the Syria crisis has led four million people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighboring countries in the region. Innocent children have been forced to leave their country and settle in new environments.

During a drawing activity in Lebanon, Syrian refugee children drew the four things that they miss the most about their home:

Tareq

“Our home in Syria was huge, and we always had electricity and clean water” – Tareq, 8

Syrian refugee women and children working in the fields, harvesting potatoes in a farm earning four dollars a day in Bekaa -Lebanon

At the end of the work day, the landlord makes sure that all the harvested potatoes are loaded in the truck to be shipped to the market.

The Middle East was hit by a major storm last week. The extreme conditions pose a continued serious threat to vulnerable families, particularly those living in sub-standard shelters such as tents, huts and makeshift buildings in the Bekaa Valley and Akkar. These areas experience harsher winter conditions due to their geographical position, altitude and temperature variation. Vulnerable children have been struggling to cope – and even survive – as the winter storm Zina brought unrelenting freezing winds, heavy rains, snow and temperatures as low as -12 degrees Celsius in Bekaa.

Lebanon has already witnessed two storms in the beginning of winter 2014. Storm Misha greeted the country with massive bolts of lightning and a rapid decrease in temperature, followed by storm Nancy’s heavy rain that fell across the country and snowfall that covered high altitude areas.