11 July 2025
Recently, I was privileged to spend three days in Lebanon with Wafa and her brilliant team, seeing MAP’s projects in action and meeting with the people making such a positive difference to Palestinians living in refugee camps.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are often overlooked as the international community’s focus is on the mass-scale daily atrocities being inflicted upon Gaza’s population, and on the increasing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, whether at the hands of ever-encroaching Israeli settlers or armed forces. But this visit brought home to me why we should be so proud that MAP’s is supporting Palestinians living as refugees in Lebanon.
Conditions vary from camp to camp and, indeed, within each refugee area. But what I witnessed were appallingly cramped living quarters, often no more than a small room, yet often housing large families. Little work is available for the refugees and access to education is a challenge, as despite UNWRA schools providing free education at primary and secondary level-instead of schooling, many children drop out to work and support their families. Very few people can afford generators, so in some camps, refugees are only able to access electricity for two hours a day. Where electricity is available, the visible external wiring is – just as it looks – a major fire hazard, with multiple deaths each year by fire or electrocution.
I arrived in Lebanon in a sombre mood, disgusted by the appalling atrocities being committed in Palestine by Netanyahu’s Israeli Government and lamenting the response of the West.
Yet, here among our own colleagues and those partners delivering our projects, I saw the best of humanity at work: people devoting their lives to helping others in most desperate need. MAP’s teams are doing an extraordinary job in line with our mandate to improve the lives of the Palestinian community living as refugees in Lebanon.
Here are some of the highlights of my visit:
My first day began with a return visit to meet the MAP midwives in the Nahr el Bared and Beddawi teams who run our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Project. These colleagues are simply amazing – their talent, expertise, passion and commitment, and the help they provide to Palestinian mothers and their families in the camps, is extraordinary. The work they do and the joy they bring in the most difficult circumstances has an enormously positive impact on the beneficiaries and the community as a whole. Long after I leave MAP, I will remember with great fondness the time I have spent with these women: their passion, stories, and the joy and the hope that they convey.
From there, we visited our partner, Beit Atfal Assomoud (BAS) and their Makani multi-service centre and the Adolescents Health Project we help to fund.
Founded in 1976, BAS was established to provide accommodation and assistance to children who had been orphaned in the Tal Al Zaatar massacre. Today, the Centre provides services for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other disadvantaged people living in the camps or nearby.
I am so proud that MAP is supporting this Centre. The whole facility exudes kindness and joy and connects the children to their Palestinian heritage.
We ended the first day with a brief visit to the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) project run by our partner Solidarity Association.
Their mission is to promote women’s education and rights, as well as children’s social, educational, cultural and economic situation, for all Palestinians in Lebanon.
MAP and the Solidarity Association collaborate on initiatives such as the "Strengthening Community-Based Child Protection" project, which aims to improve the lives of children and families in Palestinian camps in Lebanon. For this project, The Solidarity Association, plays a pivotal role in providing psychosocial support to children and families in the camps.
My second day began at our offices in Saida to meet with our midwives there. Just like their counterparts in the North of Lebanon, I was struck by the dedication and commitment of these wonderful people. I was also struck by their loyalty to MAP – so many having served our wonderful organisation for many years. All our midwives are Lebanese, as Palestinian women are not allowed to work in this profession in Lebanon. It was clear how much mutual respect and affection exists between these midwives and the Palestinian population they support. I also learned how our work was contributing to broader family benefits including family planning and health and nutrition outcomes.
Meeting with this second team of MAP midwives reinforced my conviction that we should expand our MCH project, even while we seek additional external fundings, which is something we have now decided to do. It was also clear just how important the project to introduce an electronic health management system for the midwives is– something they are eagerly anticipating.
A couple of the midwives then accompanied Wafa and me to see a gathering at the outskirts of Ein el Helweh refugee camp, where they provide services to highly vulnerable mothers and infants there. The living conditions were much worse than I had seen in the north of Lebanon and the poverty more obvious.
The families I visited were all living in cramped, dire conditions.
In the afternoon, following our return to Beirut, Mahmoud Aladawi from our Lebanon office accompanied Wafa and me to Burj el Barjneh camp where he lives and where we visited another MHPSS project run by our partner the Najdeh Centre. The Najdeh Association is a secular, feminist, democratic organisation that was founded at the beginning of civil war in 1976. It works mainly with Palestinian women and girl refugees, and through them, with the wider marginalised Palestinian community in Lebanon.
Again, the atmosphere created by the staff at the Centre was warm and supportive, and the children were clearly benefiting from the safe psychological space provided. They were happy to share their experiences, even when the stories were harrowing, such as those who had been forced to flee southern Lebanon after Israeli air strikes had destroyed their homes, or one boy who recounted how his home in this camp had been destroyed by a fire caused by the poor electrical wiring.
Before ending the day, we visited a MAP-supported Gender-Based Violence prevention and support services centre. Here, we attended a session where women from the camp shared the challenges they experienced. In addition to GBV, early childhood marriage was discussed as, despite significant reductions in incidence, this was still happening in some families in the refugee camp.
On my last day in Lebanon, we visited our partner for a disability project, the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation where I met with its wonderful Director, Nahla Ghandour who, in addition to her commitment to helping children with disabilities, is also a force (for good!) to be reckoned with. Remarkably clear-sighted and knowledgeable, and drawing on nearly 40 years of experience, Nahla will not compromise on what is best for the children for whom her centre provides support. Again, this is a project MAP is incredibly proud to be supporting, especially as funding for disability projects in Lebanon often falls when crises – such as war – afflict the country, perversely as this is when support is most needed.
Before leaving Lebanon, I met with Wafa and her team once more. This gave me the opportunity not only to commend them for their brilliant programmes and support they are providing to Palestinians living as refugees across Lebanon, but also to thank them for the warmth and support they had extended to me throughout my visit. I had been so looking forward to seeing them all again, as well as learning more about our work, and my visit did not disappoint!
Thank you, Wafa! Thank you, Lebanon Team!