Gimme Shelter

A tented settlement north of Beirut next to a concrete factory. This is where the poorest and most vulnerable refugees end up. Officially there are no Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, but there are many of these unofficial settlements. As unofficial camps people are only able to stay with the permission of the landlords who charge rents and evict those wo are unable to pay. The landlords that own this rocky, dirty patch of land won't allow any latrines or sanitation facilities to be built. 120 families live here. Sanitation is dreadful - for a toilet people wade into the sea, undigifiied, unhygienic and very tricky for women. Winter is coming too and sea temperatures dropping.

We ran a session here on how to access medical care, what paperwork people need, how to get it, which clinics and hospitals offer which services and how to get there. One young woman offered enthusiastically to be our 'focal point' - to help people in her community get better medical information. Our staff asked about her baby and heard a terrible story. A few weeks ago it was very hot, under the canvas and makeshift shelters people have built. Her 5 week old baby was dehydrated, so she took him to the hospital and was turned away. Several times she tried to get a doctor to see him, but failed. He died that evening.

There is considerably hostility towards Syrian refugees, especially ones living in tented settlements where they strggle to keep clean, their clothes are often dirty and ripped, despite their best efforts. As we drove back, we saw a banner between the billboards for Domino's Pizza and Smeg appliances, it said 'Syrians are not allowed out between 6pm and 8am for their own safety'. Our colleague Farah, a charistmatic, University-educated middle class Syrian, bristled at it and showed us a photo on her phone of a similar sign barring Syrians from a supermarket.

A rather sad and uneasy day, we ended it with a film preview in Beirut, a documentary about Syrian women's experiences of war and life as refugees in Lebanon.