During the Syrian conflict, many Syrian citizens moved to Lebanon and ended up living in the informal settlements in the rural areas without the minimal needs of living. With more than a million registered Syrian refugees, the country hosts the highest per capita ratio of refugees in the world (UNHCR, January 16). In the last couple of years, in cooperation with UNICEF, LOST was implementing the WASH project that aims to provide sanitation services as well as awareness sessions to the Syrian refugees.
Upon the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WASH program at LOST was one of the first responders to COVID-19. After receiving the Front Liners Awareness and Corona Virus training, the WASH team cascaded the training to LOST staff on the 2nd of March, 2020. All LOST branches (Baalbeck, Chaat, Bouday, Deir El Ahmar, Chmestar, Bednayel, Ersal, Ain, and Hermel), WFP Staff, and Community Farm Staff were targeted and received the information.
Starting March 3rd, WASH PHP Team started targeting Syrian Refugees with COVID-19 Awareness sessions along with the provision of the usual Hygiene Promotion sessions, soap distribution, and leaflets distribution for the attendees in our targeted areas.
Syrian refugees were more than excited to know more about COVID-19 and the ways to prevent transmission. They were eager for the soap distribution (3 soap bars per HH) that started on March 18th to be able to wash their hands with soap many times a day. The families are also still receiving their share of bleach and sanitizers (1 bleach bottle and 2 sanitizers per tent).
In total, 11,701 soap bars were distributed and the number of individuals reached via field awareness sessions is 2,802. Until today, the number of bleach bottles distributed is 2,944 and the number of sanitizers distributed is 5,888.
Along with these distributions, the water trucking services to the tents never stopped. Each tent receives its weekly share of clean water to their tanks. The project also aims to distribute water tanks to fill in the gaps of storage capacities. On the other hand, for sludge removal, LOST will remove and track the sludge disposal site to prevent environmental contamination. Desludging never stopped from the beginning of the project and the staff is on hourly communication with the Syrians for any emergency concerning sludge removal.
This project helped Syrians ensure the proper sanitation for their families and saved the environment from possible contamination and pollution. It increased their awareness on the Coronavirus and showed them that prevention is easy as long as they stick to the right practices.
