Lebanon Situation Report
by Anera
Jul 16, 2021
According to the World Bank, Lebanon currently faces one of the worst economic and financial crises anywhere on the planet. Beginning in 2019, the Lebanese pound’s (LBP) value decreased by 90%. Lebanon’s GDP contracted 6.7% in 2019 and 20.3% in 2020, and in 2021, the GDP is expected to contract 9.5%. The crisis decimated the…
Read MoreLearning about Palestine
by Anera
May 18, 2021
From movies and literature to blogs and informative news sources, there is a lot of information out there about Palestine and the current situation. We have put together a short list of some of our favorites. Whether you’re just getting started or have worked in Palestine for years, we hope there’s something for you in…
Read MorePalestinian Culture
by Anera
Mar 22, 2021
Palestinians enjoy a rich cultural heritage. The Palestinian people have lived through enormous upheaval over the course of the last century. Many Palestinians have been dispersed and displaced from their family homes, villages and cities, making Palestinian culture and traditions even more important for holding this community together. Whether in ancestral towns or in refugee…
Read MoreRoots in Palestine: Dedicated to Palestinian Refugees Since 1948
by Anera
May 15, 2019
For Palestinians around the world, May 15th marks the “Nakba” (literally “disaster” or “catastrophe” in Arabic) which commemorates the 1948 Palestinian exodus during the establishment of the State of Israel. The resulting humanitarian crisis has affected geo-politics, individual states, the environment and human development in the Middle East and beyond for 71 years. It was…
Read MoreThe Cornerstone of Palestinian Society: Family
by Anera
Nov 28, 2018
Families have always been the cornerstone of Palestinian society, and serve as the first place where children can learn respect, self-esteem, responsibility, community and most importantly love. These values, when amplified in society at-large, shape a nation. That is why Anera strives to deliver projects and programs that directly benefit Palestinian families in the West…
Read MoreGaza Emergency
by Anera
Jun 13, 2018
Once again, the crisis in the Gaza Strip is generating headlines around the world. Recent protests at the Gaza-Israeli border left thousands of Palestinians in need of medical aid. These Gaza protests, called ‘The Great March of Return,’ were focused on the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to family lands or…
Read More11 Years of Visiting Gaza, Seeing it Deteriorate
by Liz Demarest
Apr 25, 2018
Since December 2007 I have visited Gaza nine times. It is April 2018 and I just got back from a trip there. Over the course of 11 years, I have seen this beautiful strip of land deteriorate to the point where it is hard to imagine how much worse it can be. On my first…
Read More7 Years On: Remembering Syrian Refugees
by Anera
Mar 15, 2018
After seven years of war in Syria, more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in informal tented settlements, abandoned buildings, or cramped spaces in decades-old Palestinian camps within Lebanon. Among them are the “twice refugeed”—displaced Palestinian refugees from Syria. They join the half-million Palestinian refugees already living in formal camps in Lebanon. Syrians living in…
Read MoreTo Help Refugees, Help the Whole Community
by Sean Carroll
Dec 21, 2017
On a recent trip to Lebanon, my first to the region as the new head of Anera, I met with a group of youth. Two were Syrian refugees, one a Palestinian refugee from Syria (a refugee twice over), one a Palestinian refugee who’s grown up in Lebanon, and one a Lebanese. Though their stories and…
Read MoreSpotlighting the Refugee Crisis in Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow
Oct 11, 2017
There’s an expression in Arabic, khallyh yballt albahar, which translates to, “let him lay tiles on the seafloor,” and is usually said when someone insists on going through with a bad idea they’ve been warned against. I thought of the phrase as I sat down to watch Ai Weiwei’s new film, Human Flow. In it,…
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