Feature - Lebanon picks up the pieces
Source: British Red Cross Society - UK
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British Red
Cross delegate, Mark Snelling, visited Lebanon recently to see the aftermath of the war and how the Red Cross has been helping the people affected.
There is often an unsettling calm about people who have been profoundly traumatised; a certain intensity of gaze combines with a softness of voice to create an aura of stillness. The underlying reality is very different."There were 25 of us in the house when it was bombed," says Majed Mahmoud Atoui. "Three women and two children were killed. I lost my daughter, she was 11." Majed, 49, had sought sanctuary with his wife Nouha and their daughter at his father-in-law's home in southern Lebanon after fighting broke out between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces on July 12.Nouha sustained a head injury during the aerial bombing and was evacuated by an ambulance of the Lebanese Red Cross Society (LRCS), first to the coastal city of Tyre and then on to Beirut. She then contracted pseudomonas, an opportunistic bacterial infection, and is now virtually paralysed.She was just one of more than 900 war-related evacuations and more than 8,200 emergency medical transfers carried out by the LRCS during the 34-day conflict under impossibly dangerous conditions. The fighting may have stopped, but the LRCS is still hard at work, backed by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.There is much to be done.Against the odds"They really are heroes, they've done a magnificent work," says Majid, speaking at Beirut airport, where Nouha has just been transferred by LRCS ambulance from the American University hospital. She is being evacuated with 35 others to Italy for specialist medical care."It was dangerous work for them, but they still did it, even with so many dead and injured," he says. Dangerous indeed. One first-aid volunteer was killed on August 11 and several ambulances suffered hits, two of them direct strikes. Many of the young volunteers lost family members and saw their own homes destroyed."Everyone was worried and angry, but we just focused on our job," says Haidar Abdel-Nabi, a 19-year-old volunteer at the LRCS Emergency Medical Services (EMS) centre in Mreijeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut.Haidar, a student of bio-medical engineering, lost his grandfather and cousin during the war. Ten of his colleagues lost their homes. He has seen more than any teenager should see."We got calls to destroyed buildings that were full of people. The survivors were suffering from burns. There were a lot of lost limbs. One case was a little girl who had lost her eyes."The biggest frustration, he says, was the frequent difficulty in securing access to certain areas."It was difficult, but we had to deal with it," he says. An LRCS team of psycho-social specialists is now providing counselling services to some of the society's 2,500 first aid volunteers as well as to those affected by the conflict.A global responseThe International Committee of the Red Cross backed the LRCS throughout the war with medical supplies, logistical support and distributions of food and essential household items to some 300,000 people. For many it was a lifeline."We were like a family with the Red Cross," says 17-year-old Fatima Hussein. She and her relatives stayed in their apartment, which is in the same building as the centre, calculating correctly that they would be safe there.
Some 4,000 families in the area, including Fatima's, received rice, sugar, oil, kitchen equipment, blankets and hygiene products. On top of that, ambulance crews filled their vehicles with food after they had dropped patients at the hospital and brought it back."Without them we would have found it very difficult," says Fatima. "It was so hard to find any food."According to Juan Coderque, head of the ICRC delegation in Beirut, the first emergency response phase of the operation is now coming to an end."We're starting to plan the second phase, which will involve more targeted distributions of food and non-food items in the south based on more specific criteria of vulnerability," he says. Up to 25,000 families will receive assistance until the end of the first quarter of next year. Assessments will pay particular attention to families in poorer communities who are reliant for their income on a tobacco and olive harvest that will not take place this year. Farms that have not been destroyed are for the most part infested with hundreds of thousands of bomblets, dispersed by cluster bombs in the closing days of the conflict. Working the groves and orchards is now suicidal.Building backAside from distributions to the most vulnerable, the ICRC will focus its assistance in the coming months on restoring water supplies and providing fuel, a pressing requirement now that winter is approaching.The ICRC is working on the rehabilitation of three major water-treatment plants and pumping stations in the Wazzani, Tahibe and Markaba in the south. In cooperation with the Lebanese water boards, it is also conducting emergency repairs to bombed pipelines and primary water networks from Saddaqin to Bent Jbail. A mobile generating unit is touring various smaller water stations, helping to restore water supply to hundreds of thousands of people.What is the military value in bombing the house of an English teacher?Majed Mahmoud Atoui, whose wife, an English teacher, was injured during the conflictThe strategy for the first six months of next year, ICRC officials say, will focus on cables, pumps, pipelines and electricity supply.In collaboration with both the ICRC, the LRCS, and the International Federation, several other Red Crescent National Societies – Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to name but a few – are also active in the area, providing food and non-food items together with logistical support.The British Red Cross contributed more than £1 million to the operation, as well as channelling almost £2 million from the Department for International Development (DFID).It would be difficult to overstate the extent of the destruction inflicted on Lebanon's physical infrastructure during the war. But roads and bridges can be rebuilt; pipelines can be reconnected; fuel can be purchased. The human cost is altogether higher.At Beirut airport, Nouha waits in silence for the flight that will evacuate her. Strapped to a stretcher, she stares listlessly into space, her breathing laboured and sporadic as her husband gently strokes her forehead. "My wife is an English teacher…What is the military value in bombing the house of an English teacher?" he asks. One wishes there was an answer.
There is often an unsettling calm about people who have been profoundly traumatised; a certain intensity of gaze combines with a softness of voice to create an aura of stillness. The underlying reality is very different."There were 25 of us in the house when it was bombed," says Majed Mahmoud Atoui. "Three women and two children were killed. I lost my daughter, she was 11." Majed, 49, had sought sanctuary with his wife Nouha and their daughter at his father-in-law's home in southern Lebanon after fighting broke out between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces on July 12.Nouha sustained a head injury during the aerial bombing and was evacuated by an ambulance of the Lebanese Red Cross Society (LRCS), first to the coastal city of Tyre and then on to Beirut. She then contracted pseudomonas, an opportunistic bacterial infection, and is now virtually paralysed.She was just one of more than 900 war-related evacuations and more than 8,200 emergency medical transfers carried out by the LRCS during the 34-day conflict under impossibly dangerous conditions. The fighting may have stopped, but the LRCS is still hard at work, backed by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.There is much to be done.Against the odds"They really are heroes, they've done a magnificent work," says Majid, speaking at Beirut airport, where Nouha has just been transferred by LRCS ambulance from the American University hospital. She is being evacuated with 35 others to Italy for specialist medical care."It was dangerous work for them, but they still did it, even with so many dead and injured," he says. Dangerous indeed. One first-aid volunteer was killed on August 11 and several ambulances suffered hits, two of them direct strikes. Many of the young volunteers lost family members and saw their own homes destroyed."Everyone was worried and angry, but we just focused on our job," says Haidar Abdel-Nabi, a 19-year-old volunteer at the LRCS Emergency Medical Services (EMS) centre in Mreijeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut.Haidar, a student of bio-medical engineering, lost his grandfather and cousin during the war. Ten of his colleagues lost their homes. He has seen more than any teenager should see."We got calls to destroyed buildings that were full of people. The survivors were suffering from burns. There were a lot of lost limbs. One case was a little girl who had lost her eyes."The biggest frustration, he says, was the frequent difficulty in securing access to certain areas."It was difficult, but we had to deal with it," he says. An LRCS team of psycho-social specialists is now providing counselling services to some of the society's 2,500 first aid volunteers as well as to those affected by the conflict.A global responseThe International Committee of the Red Cross backed the LRCS throughout the war with medical supplies, logistical support and distributions of food and essential household items to some 300,000 people. For many it was a lifeline."We were like a family with the Red Cross," says 17-year-old Fatima Hussein. She and her relatives stayed in their apartment, which is in the same building as the centre, calculating correctly that they would be safe there.
Some 4,000 families in the area, including Fatima's, received rice, sugar, oil, kitchen equipment, blankets and hygiene products. On top of that, ambulance crews filled their vehicles with food after they had dropped patients at the hospital and brought it back."Without them we would have found it very difficult," says Fatima. "It was so hard to find any food."According to Juan Coderque, head of the ICRC delegation in Beirut, the first emergency response phase of the operation is now coming to an end."We're starting to plan the second phase, which will involve more targeted distributions of food and non-food items in the south based on more specific criteria of vulnerability," he says. Up to 25,000 families will receive assistance until the end of the first quarter of next year. Assessments will pay particular attention to families in poorer communities who are reliant for their income on a tobacco and olive harvest that will not take place this year. Farms that have not been destroyed are for the most part infested with hundreds of thousands of bomblets, dispersed by cluster bombs in the closing days of the conflict. Working the groves and orchards is now suicidal.Building backAside from distributions to the most vulnerable, the ICRC will focus its assistance in the coming months on restoring water supplies and providing fuel, a pressing requirement now that winter is approaching.The ICRC is working on the rehabilitation of three major water-treatment plants and pumping stations in the Wazzani, Tahibe and Markaba in the south. In cooperation with the Lebanese water boards, it is also conducting emergency repairs to bombed pipelines and primary water networks from Saddaqin to Bent Jbail. A mobile generating unit is touring various smaller water stations, helping to restore water supply to hundreds of thousands of people.What is the military value in bombing the house of an English teacher?Majed Mahmoud Atoui, whose wife, an English teacher, was injured during the conflictThe strategy for the first six months of next year, ICRC officials say, will focus on cables, pumps, pipelines and electricity supply.In collaboration with both the ICRC, the LRCS, and the International Federation, several other Red Crescent National Societies – Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to name but a few – are also active in the area, providing food and non-food items together with logistical support.The British Red Cross contributed more than £1 million to the operation, as well as channelling almost £2 million from the Department for International Development (DFID).It would be difficult to overstate the extent of the destruction inflicted on Lebanon's physical infrastructure during the war. But roads and bridges can be rebuilt; pipelines can be reconnected; fuel can be purchased. The human cost is altogether higher.At Beirut airport, Nouha waits in silence for the flight that will evacuate her. Strapped to a stretcher, she stares listlessly into space, her breathing laboured and sporadic as her husband gently strokes her forehead. "My wife is an English teacher…What is the military value in bombing the house of an English teacher?" he asks. One wishes there was an answer.
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