Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT, May 2 (IPS) - The influx of refugees from Palestinian areas and the inability of the government to do much for them has strengthened a unique NGO providing essential services.
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"We give services because services are better than money," Ahmad Halimeh, co-founder of PARD told IPS at one of the group's busy clinics in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. "I try to teach people to help themselves."
This policy is not just an ideal but a necessity for Palestinian refugees who now comprise at least 10 percent of the Lebanese population of four million, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
As of December 2003, UNRWA lists 394,532 refugees in the country, about a quarter of a million of them living in registered camps. The group also lists more than 46,000 "hardship cases".
UNRWA is by far the largest UN operation in the Middle East and has a staff of more than 27,000, most of them refugees themselves, but that is still not enough. That is where PARD comes in.
Halimeh, a Palestinian, suffered prolonged hardships in a camp during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). "I quickly realised there wasn't enough food or basic services for us, so five of us decided to start a committee to teach hygiene in the camps and deliver food and basic aid."
The group has grown rapidly since then. PARD now receives financial support from several international NGO's, including Norwegian People's Aid, Novib from the Netherlands, Oxfam Canada, Solidaridad International in Spain and the Karim Rida Said Foundation in Britain.
The need for support to the refugees has become increasingly well recognised among concerned groups. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon do not have social or civil rights, and only limited access to public health and educational services. Considered foreigners, Palestinian refugees are prohibited by law from working in at least 70 trades and professions.
This has led to a very high rate of unemployment amongst the refugee population. A Palestinian refugee in Lebanon still needs a work permit, valid for a maximum of two years.
The refugees are now the poorest section of Lebanese society, and are the poorest group of Palestinian refugees in any Arab country. The Israeli government refuses to repatriate them. Some refugees have been in Lebanon since 1948, the year the state of Israel was created in Palestine.
PARD has found itself campaigning for rights, besides providing services. "We do advocacy work for labour and civil rights of people because Palestinians cannot work here," said Halimeh.
But PARD focuses on solutions, rather than the obstacles.
The NGO has developed several clinics in Beirut, as well as two in southern Lebanon. It now owns a mobile clinic. During the war last summer this was among the first of medical services that victims in the south could access.
PARD also runs a transportation service to carry children to schools administered by UNRWA.
But despite its efforts towards education, healthcare and community building, PARD is unable to integrate Palestinian children into Lebanese society, since law prohibits Palestinians from using services meant for Lebanese civilians.
PARD has nevertheless made a great difference to the life of many Palestinians. "I like this administration because it treats us and the patients better than anyone I've seen," said laboratory technician Ata al-Hassan inside the general clinic at the Shatila refugee camp, where the PARD head office is located.
"Earlier I worked in one of Beirut's main hospitals, but I was never allowed to use my full training," Imam Dirbass, a midwife who has been working with PARD for 11 years told IPS. "We do everything for the women here before sending them to a general hospital for their delivery."
PARD clinics also provide ophthalmology services, paediatric care, first aid and education classes.
"UNRWA told me they could not help me and suggested I come here," Suthir Assad at the main clinic told IPS. "My 18-year-old son needs operations, so I'm hoping that these people can assist us somehow."]]>
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT, May 7 (IPS) - As reconstruction resumes in the heavily bombed southern Beirut district Dahiyeh, the signs are evident of a rebuilding of resistance against Israel and the U.S.-backed government, largely by way of increased support for Hezbollah.]]>
Many local people accuse the U.S.-backed Lebanese government of refusal to help reconstruction in pro-Hezbollah areas like Dahiyeh.
Foreign donors pledged more than 7 billion dollars in aid and loans at a meeting in Paris in January to help rebuild this nation of four million. Three of the biggest contributors where the United States, France and Saudi Arabia. All three are seen by the opposition as supporters of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and his allies Saad Harriri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Michel Samaha, who was minister for information 1992-1995 and again 2003-2004, told IPS that Siniora, Harriri and Jumblatt are seeking to strengthen themselves by "having on their ruling agenda the priorities of the United States in Lebanon, the priorities of the Zionists in the United States, and especially the neo-cons in the Middle East."
The anger against such policies is obvious in Shia areas.
"We've applied for help through the government," 45-year-old Dahiyeh resident Mahmoud al-Khateib told IPS at his electronics repair shop which was damaged by an Israeli bomb. "They came and inspected the damage and said they would let us know. We're still waiting."
Many people say money meant for reconstruction is going elsewhere. "All the government cares about is putting money in their own pockets," 18-year-old student Ali Mohammed told IPS. "They don't care about us, just look around you at this destruction, they are doing nothing for us."
Blocks and blocks of what were ten-storey apartment buildings were completely levelled by Israeli bombing. Empty craters is sometimes all that remains.
Hezbollah, led by Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, has spearheaded post-war reconstruction in the suburb through its NGO, Jihad al-Binaa. The organisation is well resourced, and has a force of 1,500 engineers.
Hezbollah founded Jihad al-Binaa in 1988 during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The NGO took the role of a kind of local municipality for the Shia community in the absence of an effective government. It continues to do so.
Jihad al-Binaa is one of a number of foundations run by Hezbollah. Others also deliver services normally provided by governments, such as healthcare and education. Hezbollah says the group is funded through religious charitable donations such as zakat and the Shia Muslim system of hummous, through which Shias donate a percentage of their incomes.
Hezbollah acted quickly after the bombings ended in August last year, offering 12,000 dollars to each family who had lost their house. It undertook reconstruction work directly for those most in need.
Officials loyal to Prime Minister Siniora accused Hezbollah of acting as a "state within a state." In its response delivered on Al-Manar TV which it owns, Hezbollah officials lashed out at "the absent state."
Within two weeks of the ceasefire last year, Hezbollah said the government planners "still have no contingency plans for reconstruction in the south or in Dahiyeh." That has remained largely the picture since then.
Residents agree, and their sentiment has translated into increasing respect and support for Hezbollah. Israeli officials had hoped the attacks would destroy support for the group.
"Eight months after the war nobody in the government has yet come even to inspect the damage to my home," Jihad Brahim, a 40-year-old member of the Lebanese Army told IPS as he stood near a pile of rubble under a half-destroyed building. "Look at this rubble, it would take a bulldozer 15 minutes to clear this, but it's still here."
Brahim added, "Everyone in my building has a year's worth of support from Hezbollah, and they are also carrying out reconstruction. Hezbollah is much stronger now, and all of us respect them so much more. I pray that Nasrallah lives a long life."
Al-Jazeera English
By Dahr Jamail in Damascus, Syria
(Click on images for caption information)
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Death threats
Al-Khattab said: "I know at least 10 other Iraqi doctors just here in Al-Qudsiya who have left because of death threats or the overall security situation."
A general practitioner who was a resident in the surgical department at his hospital, al-Khattab is now living off his meagre savings and unable to return to his country.
He fills his days by offering his services to other Iraqi refugees who cannot afford health care in Syria. It is also how he maintains his expertise while assisting some of what he estimates to be 50,000 Iraqis in his neighbourhood.
One of his patients is a 64-year-old Iraqi woman with type-2 diabetes, a hernia, a broken arm and an infected abscess in her right leg. The former primary school teacher broke her arm while running in panic during a mortar attack near her home in the Mansour district of Baghdad during February 2004.
Right now, al-Khattab is most concerned about the abscess which resulted from a wound when the woman, who asked to remain unidentified because of security fears, fell on a bus while going to Lebanon recently.
Iraqis in need
Dr Ahmed Shibad, 30, also left his medical practice at Baquba General Hospital for the security of Damascus.
Since he has arrived in Syria in March 2007, he still doesn't know about as many Iraqis in need as al-Khattab does, but is doing what he can.
He said: "I've helped on a case of an Iraqi here who needed help, free of charge of course. If anyone asks me, I'll help them immediately."
And there probably are many Iraqis in need of free medical care.
Last month, Damascus called for international aid to manage the nearly 40,000 Iraqis entering Syria every month. The UN estimates that there are some one million Iraqis in the country.
So far, Syrian authorities have maintained an "open door" policy and have welcomed the Iraqis as "guests", but they are prohibited from procuring gainful employment.
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