Urgent Aid Needed for Lebanon

Over 55,000 people fleeing the war have already arrived in Lebanon, where the PCPM Foundation is providing assistance. This number is expected to rise. The list of needs on the ground is extensive: mattresses, blankets, hygiene products, powdered milk, and kitchen utensils. You can help by visiting pcpm.org.pl/lebanon.

Lebanon is facing not just one crisis but multiple overlapping ones. The ongoing economic crisis, the most severe in decades, has already forced people to seek safety and food far from their homes. The number of refugees, estimated at more than one million, is equivalent to about 25% of Lebanon’s population. People are often forced to leave their homes in a panic, with no time to pack anything. They arrive in northern Lebanon – where PCPM operates – without food, spare clothes, and with their entire families.

Dr. Wojtek Wilk, CEO of the PCPM Foundation

Refugees often have nowhere to stay, as they frequently arrive in communities inhabited by different religious groups. Many find temporary shelter in schools and other collective accommodation centers. Among them are Syrian refugees, of whom approximately one million are currently living in Lebanon, and for whom this is yet another crisis in their lives, forcing them to flee once again.

A Roof Over Their Heads and a Warm Meal

The Lebanese authorities have asked the PCPM Foundation to take responsibility for a “humanitarian zone” in northern Lebanon’s mountains, covering several dozen municipalities. The PCPM Foundation provides exceptional support to those refugees who cannot find shelter outside of schools and other collective accommodation centers, delivering water, hot meals, and hygiene products.

– Among those fleeing are thousands of children who have been torn from their homes and schools. For Syrian refugees, this is another crisis, and once again, they are fleeing war. People don’t know what the future holds. How much further will the war escalate, where and for what will they live, and what will they eat? Families, especially older people who have lived in their homes and villages since birth, are in shock – thrown from one end of Lebanon to the other overnight, to villages inhabited by strangers, explains Dr. Wilk.

Public school in the village of Mechmech, now a shelter for refugees

Refugees under PCPM’s care have found shelter in the mountains of Lebanon, in villages between 700 and over 1500 meters above sea level. Snow will fall there in a few weeks. If peace does not return and the refugees cannot return to their homes, they will need stoves, fuel, and sealed windows and doors to prepare their homes for winter conditions.

Onsite for 12 years

Poles from PCPM have been helping on the ground for twelve years. The Polish Centre for International Aid has been continuously helping in Lebanon since 2012. First in response to the refugee crisis related to the war in Syria. Then also to the Lebanese people affected by the economic crisis. Our support is focused on the north of the country in the Akkar province, but also operates in Beirut.