13 July 2018
In May, on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) released its latest report, Health in Exile, highlighting the many challenges to health and dignity for Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.
The country’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps and many informal gatherings across endure high rates of poverty, social exclusion, and overcrowding. Physical and mental health are undermined by these conditions, as well as the inadequate and piecemeal nature of healthcare available to Palestinians. The services UNRWA can provide – including primary health clinics – are restrained by its chronic budgetary shortfall and the increasing needs of a marginalised refugee population beset by conflict and crisis.
Significant among the challenges faced by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are the legal and practical barriers to their right to work. These restrictions, outlined in chapter three of our report, contribute to the high rate of unemployment among Palestinian refugees, particularly amongst youth who also often struggle to access training and professional development opportunities. Restrictions on the right to work also also hold back the development and refreshing of the human resources needed to maintain the Palestinian-focused healthcare system in Lebanon.
The international community’s failure to address their right to return is a key driver of the protracted humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) seeks to address through its programmes.
Our ‘Adolescents Health and Life Skills Education’ programme, run in partnership with local NGO the National Institution of Social Care and Vocational Training (NISCVT), provides free health and life-skills education to young people living in the camps. Its activities aim to not only to support mental health and provide psychosocial support for youth and their communities, but also to offers valuable vocational and professional development opportunities.
The programme’s activities are run by volunteers who receive training and support from specialists. One of these young volunteers was Mohammed*, who recently described to MAP how he had benefitted from these activities himself, and used the experience to support his community and pursue his own career.
Mohammed grew up in a refugee camp in south Lebanon. He was first made aware of the MAP- supported programme when he saw scouts from the NISCVT. Intrigued, he suggested to his friends that they go to organisation’s community centre and register for their programme of peer education sessions, including on anger management, conflict resolution and communication skills.
Mohammed says he found the sessions extremely useful and enjoyable and, after receiving extensive training from the project team, moved from attendee to facilitator, and began conducting peer education sessions to other young people in the camp. This inspired him to take a new direction:
“I was studying accounting but after participating in the project, I realised that I am passionate about social work. So, I changed my major to social work. After graduating, I applied for a job with an international NGO that involved working with vulnerable youth. In the interview, they asked me many questions that, if I had not been participating in this project I would have not been able to answer,” explained Mohammed.
The interviewer told him that although he did not have paid work experience, he was very knowledgeable in the topics related to the job and offered Mohammed the position.
Mohammed consequently started working to support young Palestinians who had dropped out of school. When this project ended after two years, he applied for and secured another job focusing on reproductive and adolescent health.
He believes the skills and experience acquired through the MAP-NISCVT programme have contributed to these accomplishments:
“I feel that all the opportunities I got and the successes I have achieved are a result of my participation in the adolescent’s health project. This project has made me a successful person,” Mohammed added.
You can read more about the right to health and the right to work for Palestinian refugees in our Health in Exile report, here. Please also consider making a donation today to help MAP to continue supporting young Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
*Name changed to protect identity
