Evaluating a project in Palestinian camps in Lebanon

I spent the month of November undertaking a final evaluation of a project that just ended the month before. The project was a pyschosocial support programme that was funded by ECHO and implemented by a French international NGO in 5 Palestinian refugee camps and one Palestinian gathering in Lebanon.

There are 12 official camps in Lebanon (one of the 12 is Nahr el-Bared which was completely destroyed in the summer of 2007 during the conflict between the militant group Fateh al-Islam and the Lebanese armed forces, see posting 29 June 2008). In addition to the 12 official camps which are served by UNRWA, there are about 52 gatherings of Palestinian refugees scattered around Lebanon. They live on Lebanese land and therefore hardly benefit from free services that are provided by the UN agency mandated of their wellbeing, UNRWA.

Many Palestinian children suffer from psychological distress due to the ongoing internal fighting inside the camps and more recently to the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, which resulted in the bombing of the camps in the South of the country. In the North, the Nahr el-Bared crisis also caused much trauma for the children. In response to this, international organisations, funded by the usual donors, developped psychosocial support programmes to help both the children and the parents. The programmes also provided capacity building to social workers and councillors to be able to refer severe cases of psychological disorder to professional psychologists in specific centers around the country. Interestingly enough, these centers are managed by Lebanese NGOs with Lebanese psychologists and support professionals, only to benefit the Palestinian population who are banned from access to such services in public Lebanese institions.

I have some photos of my interviews with some of these children in Qasmieh gathering in South Lebanon. A Sunni Palestinian area surrounded by a large Shia (Hezbollah) population.

Part of my evaluation was also to interview the parents of the children, here are some mothers after our focus group discussion.













These are two sisters who also take part in the psychosocial support activities in the community center in the camp. Girls who begin menstruation, usually start to wear the veil (Hijab), but some families put the Hijab on pre-pubic girls aswell; a common feature in more conservative Palestinian camps.





















Above the center, the refugees have built a sports room where the kids get circus training. This kind of physical activity is highly beneficial to them as they do not have much opportunity for other forms of sports, due to lack of space in the camps and no playing grounds. I took the opportunity to talk with some of the children to evaluate some of the activities and support which was provided during the phase of the project.

























The last photo I took was at the office of the international organisation that is implementing the project. They also have a large demining project in the South. As a result of the war in 2006, an enormous amount of cluster bombs and other mines were dropped or planted by Israel in the South. De-mining efforts are still underway to this day. These are some of the UXOs that have been found.