Refugee children sit in front of their home in Beirut, Lebanon
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BEIRUT, LEBANON, July 13, 2021 — Baitulmaal, a Dallas-based international humanitarian relief agency, recently installed an electric generator that powers water pumps to a newly constructed water well serving 500 Palestinian refugees in the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, Lebanon.
Approximately 125 families living in the eastern part of the camp now have access to clean, safe drinking water through a generator-powered water well. According to Elizabeth Sohail, program manager at Baitulmaal, all of the families, who live below the poverty line, had limited access to potable water because existing wells were drying up in the refugee camp.
“All of Lebanon is suffering from an economic collapse right now,” Sohail said. “Refugees have been hit particularly hard as basic essentials such as food and safe drinking water have become even more scarce all around.”
Sohail added that Baitulmaal donors were asked to contribute toward the Lebanon emergency aid efforts and “they made this water well possible.”
According to the UN, Lebanon has the highest per capita population of refugees in the world, the majority of whom are Syrian and Palestinian. Burj al-Barajneh, located in the suburbs of Beirut, hosts an estimated 31,000 refugees. They face overcrowding, high levels of poverty, lack of employment opportunities and limited access to food, water, healthcare and other essential services.
In July, UNICEF warned that 71 percent of the Lebanese population — including 1 million refugees — were in jeopardy of losing access to clean water as the country’s economic crisis impacts funding, fuel and supplies. Lack of clean water puts many at risk of waterborne diseases such as dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and leishmaniasis, which are the leading diseases affecting children between 0 and 4 years old in Lebanon. Coupled with an ailing healthcare system, lack of clean water puts lives in danger, especially during a global pandemic.
Baitulmaal was on the ground in Lebanon responding to the August 4, 2020 explosion and has since reconstructed homes and buildings and provided over 2 million meals to impoverished families in Lebanon. Baitulmaal also sent $1.2 million in medical supplies and hard-to-find medications to hospitals in Beirut.
Baitulmaal provides food, water, medicine, healthcare and other aid to people in Lebanon. If you would like to learn more or contribute to these programs at Baitulmaal, please visit their website at Baitulmaal.org.
Baitulmaal is an international humanitarian aid organization that provides life-saving, life-sustaining and life-enriching aid to people in need around the world. With headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the charity has offices in: Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Nairobi, Kenya; Mogadishu, Somalia; Amman and Al Ramtha, Jordan; and Karachi, Pakistan.
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