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UNHCR, the environment and Syrian refugees in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon

The management of solid waste is one of the foremost environmental and public policy problems affecting Lebanon – so much so, that in 2015 the mounting presence of garbage on Beirut’s streets sparked one of the biggest series of public demonstrations since the civil war. Since 2017, UNHCR together with partners is heavily involved in supporting Lebanese municipalities in the Bekaa valley devising and implementing integrated Solid Waste Management (SWM) strategies. Activities in this sense exist also in the North of the country. Now, why is UNHCR, not known as a development organization, so invested in SWM issues in Lebanon?

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The spiritual life of refugees

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s search for meaning

What does homelessness do to a refugee’s soul? Important as this question is, it has been covered only quite obliquely by humanitarian or anthropological literature – often focusing on radicalization processes of migrant and refugee youth. The link between exile and religious faith is, however, very old, quite deep and extremely varied. As Alexandra Ocasio-Ortez recently reminded all who have ears, “Christ’s family were refugees, too”. Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina, and the asylum he was granted there, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. An old platonic tradition affirms that truth is always a re-discovery, a return home from an exile in ignorance – propelled by the wings of desire. In Eastern and Western literature, the travels and travails of exile have long signified a path towards spiritual reaffirmation, growth or change.

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Syrian refugees in the Bekaa: helping municipalities ensure stability

A Syrian refugee holds a barefoot child as she walks with a girl through snow at a refugee camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

Note: this is the longer version of an article recently published in Forced Migration Review. The published version can be found here:

http://www.fmreview.org/syria2018/zapater.html

Tensions in the Bekaa during 2017

The Eastern Lebanese region of the Bekaa, which shares a long border with Syria, hosts currently around 360,000 registered Syrian refugees, representing both the highest absolute number among regions in Lebanon and also the highest proportion of refugees against the local population.

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Disarming hearts and minds: do humanitarians have a role?

 

“We will not stop until all Muslims leave Boda. If this is what it takes, we will poison the wells to kill them all”. We were all sitting with several community leaders in a spacious, high-roofed room at the church of the Central African Republic city of Boda, listening astonished to these words from one community leader, while accompanying a high-level visit from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Next to the speaker was an old, poker faced European priest, calmly looking at the bare stone floor in front of him, his long, wrinkled face showing tiredness but also determination. He did not blink once. Outside, a slow, cold rain had been falling for days on end.

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