Thanks to generous donors, World Vision has assisted nearly 200,000 survivors through our relief and recovery efforts.

August 2, 2007

By Brian Jonson and Jesse Chahine, World Vision Lebanon Communications

One year since last summer's devastating war in Lebanon, World Vision is preparing to wrap up its response. Generous donors have enabled us to assist nearly 200,000 people — many of them children — with nearly $12 million in assistance.

World Vision Grateful

"World Vision staff and volunteers have worked very hard over the last year to help the children, families, and communities affected by last summer's war," says Tony Matar, World Vision Lebanon's relief manager. "We're grateful for the support from our donors, and our partnerships with communities here in Lebanon, that made our interventions possible."

Nearly 1 Million Displaced

According to government figures, the July 2006 war killed 1,200 people in Lebanon — about one-third of them children — and wounded 4,000. At the peak of the fighting, nearly 1 million people, about 25 percent of the population, were displaced.

Despite various dangers during the month-long conflict that began on July 12, 2006, our team proved heroic in its immediate efforts to provide aid and expand relief operations to all areas of the country — delivering food, clean water, hygiene kits, cooking implements, fuel, and medical supplies to assist tens of thousands of war-devastated survivors.

Focus on Children

Our six-month update details this response that focused on children, including age-appropriate mine-awareness activities in the war's aftermath.

After that update, World Vision was able to assist more than 15,000 families living in war-damaged homes — an estimated 99,000 people in the Marjeyoun, Bint Jbeil, Zahlé, Baalbeck, and West Bekaa program areas — to survive bone-chilling winter conditions.

Our distributions included blankets, linens, fuel vouchers, plastic sheeting, heaters, and cooking stoves. These were provided through the $6 million Lebanese Emergency Winter Intervention (LEWI) project, funded by the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and World Vision donors in the United States.

In alignment with our focus on children's needs in the aftermath of disasters, our final project in post-war Lebanon will be the construction of several Child-Friendly Spaces in the Marjeyoun program area. These facilities provide a place for children to engage in structured activities, which helps them to heal from the emotional distress they've experienced.

Despite the instability of this war-torn nation, "World Vision will continue to support a peaceful future for Lebanon by working with people from all communities to ensure children in Lebanon can enjoy life in all its fullness," Matar says.