Being fully committed to continuing to deliver assistance, UNICEF is working with its partner, the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) to find solutions to logistical and operational constraints that might lead vulnerable families in Baalbeck-Hermel to go hungry during this pandemic and lockdown. Specifically, participants from the Youth Led Initiatives worked non-stop hours with the support and supervision of LOST officers to complete this humanitarian mission. UNICEF has revised its appeal to US $651.6 million globally to meet the increased needs of communities to address COVID-19’s collateral impacts. With its dual humanitarian and development mandate, and existing regional, country and field presence, UNICEF has a strong comparative advantage in being able to address the scale of the country’s needs.
The youth of the Baalbeck region were toiling tirelessly to make sure that no one goes hungry during this pandemic in the region. A unit of volunteers, former, and current participants in the Youth Led Initiative projects as Life Skills for Active Citizenship, and Life Skills for Personal Empowerment, being implemented by LOST and UNICEF, are working to provide 2,000 vulnerable families all over villages of Baalbeck-Hermel with the essential food basket in the first phase. Each box contains some food essentials: lentil, groats, beans, sunflower oil, sardine, rice, pasta, chickpeas, flour, fava beans, and tomato paste. 70 youth, having undergone several intensive trainings, have been engaged in the whole process of planning and execution, starting from the needs assessment and project design, to assembling and packaging, to sterilization of kits, and to working on the field in coordination with municipalities.
With the world’s largest food companies warning that the number of families suffering from chronic hunger might double while food supplies are being massively disrupted, the question was how can we support our local community in times of lockdown? The Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training in cooperation with UNICEF, and with the help of active youth, stepped up to volunteer and deliver the kind aids to self-isolating families at their humble doorsteps under ultimate safety procedures.
With the support of UNICEF in addition to kind donations of citizens and local supermarkets, this plan was put into action. The youth first received the packaged products and sterilized every single item. Then products were equally filled among 2,000 boxes that were also being sterilized after being filled. By taking maximal precautions, these heroes were preparing 200+ baskets filled with love and solidarity every few hours. One strength in this procedure was the previously validated database of most vulnerable families in Baalbeck-Hermel that was prepared by LOST as a result of years of humanitarian work. These families are mostly: families of children, the elderly, those with special needs, those applying isolation or quarantine procedures at the request of the Ministry of Public Health, those falling below the poverty line, families of laid-off workers, etc. Stressing that families in which the number of children under the age of eight (early childhood) is two or more, and families with a population of more than five members with elderlies are given priority, this initiative can guarantee reducing the effects of poverty and malnutrition that may affect children, pregnant women and the elderly, especially in needy families.
“This powerful system should be a life raft in times of crisis. Our country will be fine as long as we are united in such times of distress”, said Dr. Rami Lakkis, the founder of LOST as he visited the location that looked like a beehive, and praised sweaty foreheads and hands.
The biggest challenge today is not securing aid, whether it is financial or in kind, health or social services or other, but rather identifying those who need help and support from the social groups with a minimal margin of error, and in setting a procedural mechanism to ensure integrity, fairness and inclusion, and avoiding waste in the process of aid distribution.
Such spontaneous movements in some Lebanese regions are only a warning bell for what will be the general situation in the coming period if serious and effective measures are not taken. On the other hand, this only reflects the civilized and dignified image of the Lebanese in general, and people of Baalbeck-Hermel in particular, who showed that a country can stand still when its peoples’ veins carry solidarity and humanity as blood.and you can help
