Holland Ambassador Jan Waltmans visited the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) in Baalbeck and met with a number of municipal leaders and people of Baalbeck-Hermel. The meeting focused on “the development needs of the municipalities and the problems of Syrian displacement”.
Ambassador Waltmans expressed his happiness for being in the region and his meeting with the mayors, who are the local representatives and are best able to convey the reality and its problems and needs, as he listened to the interventions of municipal officials participating in the meeting.
The participants agreed on “the need to improve the infrastructure that was negatively affected by the Syrian displacement, especially the problems of water, electricity, sewage, and waste, in addition to the call of the international community to find a final solution to the presence of displaced Syrians in the region”.
Waltmans expressed his understanding of all the difficulties experienced by the region, which arose with the Syrian exodus, and promised to convey their fears, needs, and opinions to the decision makers in the Lebanese state and in the Netherlands.
He also announced that the Netherlands will continue to support Lebanon, which hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees at around $56 million a year, and this funding will be shared equally between Lebanese and displaced Syrians.
The Ambassador then met with the youth involved in the project “Youth Solidarity Against Extremism”, which is being implemented by LOST in cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Lebanon.
Waltmans also visited the community farm in Baalbek and the sewing operator in Douris, where he was given a locally made gown.
