Jan, 2025
The Baalbek-Hermel governorate, located in the northeast of Lebanon, is known for its rich history and architectural ruins as well as its agricultural productions like wheat and barley and its livestock farming with sheep and goats.
Baalbek-Hermel Governorate | محافظة بعلبك - الهرمل
The Baalbek-Hermel governorate, located in the northeast of Lebanon, is known for its rich history and architectural ruins as well as its agricultural productions like wheat and barley and its livestock farming with sheep and goats. A largely rural and remote territory, the area has long struggled with entrenched poverty.
Created in 2014 after the split of the Bekaa valley in two governorates, the Baalbek-Hermel governorate is home to a predominantly Shiite population with pockets of Christians and Sunnis. The region has seen tremendous population change as a result of conflicts in the wider Middle East and refugees now make up nearly half of the population. In this population of over 400,000 residents, 33% are registered Syrian refugees and 12% are Palestinian refugees. The governorate adjacent to the Syrian border hosts 12 Syrian refugee settlements in Arsal and the Wavel Palestinian refugee camp, also known locally as Jalil (Galilee) camp, in southern Baalbek.
Agriculture
The Baalbek-Hermel Governorate is one of Lebanon’s most fertile areas. However, farmers there often struggle to make ends meet. Production costs are high and water management can be a problem. In the early 2010s, in partnership with the YMCA, Anera supported 141 farmers in Deir El Ahmar and Hasbaya (the latter located in the Nabatieh Governorate) with 6,718 trees, soil testing, and technical assistance. The aim of the project was to increase farmers’ income by putting fallow lands back into use and improving the quality of the products produced on the farms.
Also in the early 2010s, Anera worked in Barqa and Rabiaa to improve farmers’ income by implementing better water management techniques. The project included rehabilitating the main water network, installing six filtering stations, equipping 31 farmers with new water drippers for more efficient irrigation, and providing 133 farmers with an individual irrigation schedule adapted to their farm’s qualifications and specific irrigation system. Our agronomist experts provided awareness sessions on proper water management, which benefited the entire farming community.
Health
Medical Donations
Anera’s medical donations program works with local health providers to support healthcare for the most vulnerable in Baalbek-Hermel. We provide medical aid like intravenous nutrient solutions and personal protective equipment for patients and nurses to institutions like the Baalbek Public Hospital.
We care deeply about our nurses. Without this generous donation, we would have found it too difficult to purchase [all of the needed safety gear]. We are already drowning in debt as an underfunded hospital in an underprivileged area.
— Abbas Chokor, Director of the Baalbek Government Hospital
Providing Regular Deliveries of Chronic Medicines
With the economic collapse and enormous inflation in Lebanon, a considerable portion of the population is experiencing financial difficulties. Many people suffering from chronic diseases are forced to interrupt their medical treatment either because their medicines are out of stock or because they have become too expensive. In the early 2020s, Anera delivered a multi-year program to provide chronic medications to 50+ medical centers across Lebanon. We served 20 healthcare facilities in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate alone, including clinics in Ain, Arsal, the city of Baalbek, Duris and Urda.
Menstrual Health
Anera also organizes awareness campaigns on public health issues. In Baalbek-Hermel, we did home visits to Lebanese and Syrian refugee women to deliver awareness sessions on menstrual hygiene and safe disposal of waste, as well as education on proper COVID-19 precautionary measures.
Another crucial aspect of this campaign was the distribution of family-sized hygiene kits. Our team distributed reusable and washable pads, explained how to use them, and made sure that every woman and girl received a batch of single-use pads as well, to ease the transition. Disposable sanitary products are often far too expensive for many to regularly purchase, necessitating the importance of introducing reusable pads as a safe alternative.
These women who are now educated about their bodies and their health needs will be able to pass their knowledge along to younger generations.
![Ghofran (R), is a 21-year-old Lebanese woman lives in Baalbek. After attending an awareness session she said, "I learned a lot of new information, such as the harm caused by certain medications during the menstrual cycle, and also about misconceptions such as the [supposed] danger of exercising during menstruation. We are in a conservative society that does not encourage such discussions. Today, I am able to educate my younger sisters and relatives about the menstrual cycle. I feel more confident.”](https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/menstrual-hygiene-lebanon-syrian-refugee-bekaa-women-and-girls-281A2973-EDITED.jpg "menstrual-hygiene, lebanon, syrian-refugee, bekaa, women-and-girls 281A2973-EDITED")
Combatting Period Poverty
In the early 2020s, to combat endemic period poverty among vulnerable communities like the Syrian refugee settlements in Lebanon, Anera and its partners distributed (reusable and disposable) pads, underwear, and other hygiene products. We also conducted awareness and education sessions.
In the remote Syrian refugee camp in Arsal, Lebanon, Anera began promoting menstrual hygiene and health in early 2021 through our UNHCR-funded waste and recycling program.
In conservative, traditional societies, menstruation is rarely discussed and many girls do not learn accurate information about how to care for their own bodies. However, with these educational sessions, Anera is trying to break the cycle of silence, so that mothers in this and future generations understand the importance of educating their daughters.
Responding to COVID-19
Right at the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, the Anera team in the Bekaa Valley put together packages of essential materials for the prevention of the COVID-19 (containing alcohol, hand sanitizer, latex gloves and thermometers) and distributed them to the municipalities of Temnin El Foka, Temnin El Tahta, Qsranaba and Bednayel.
Ramadan Food Parcels
In April 2020, when a resident of the Wavel Palestinian camp tested positive for COVID-19, Anera sprung into action to help. With the Najdeh Association, we brought together 20 young people to assemble food packages for 700 families, so they could stay in place. This was part of Anera’s larger Ramadan food distribution campaign.
Health Education
Anera’s Creative Health Campaign (2006-2011) promoted simple, cost-effective, good health practices that people living in marginalized and poor communities could employ to improve their health and foster self-reliance. In partnership with 120 local organizations, Anera planned colorful parades and theatrical events, distributed materials, hung posters, trained volunteers and conducted awareness sessions primarily in refugee camps. In the Wavel Camp, Anera had several key local partners: the Children of Jalil Center, Inaash Association, Baraem, Women Activities Center, Right to Play and UNRWA.
Humanitarian Relief
As elsewhere in Lebanon, when emergencies arise in Baalbek-Hermel, Anera stands ready to respond.
During the winter of 2019, Lebanon was battered by two heavy storms. The impact on Syrian refugees living in tent camps was particularly acute. Arsal was blanketed with heavy snow. Refugees living in informal settlements are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather as their dwellings expose them to the elements and don’t provide the protection they need from the cold and freezing temperatures.
Anera delivered emergency aid — including 500 food packages, 1,000 wool blankets, 6,000 liters of fuel and 500 portable emergency lamps to 500 families — to Alkaram settlement in Arsal, a remote area of the Bekaa Valley in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, 1,550 meters above sea level. Each affected family received two blankets, an emergency light, and a food parcel.
Only a few months later, in July 2019, Syrians living in tented settlements in Arsal were forced out by authorities. Every day, 130 children had to wait in a safe shelter while their parents dismantled their makeshift homes, which took many hours.
Children of the newly displaced spending their days at the children’s center were going hungry. Heeding a call for help from the WHO, Anera delivered 5,298 meal packages to children in Arsal over a period of 40 days.
Winter Boots
The Syrian civil war drove hundreds of thousands of refugees into Lebanon. The Wavel Palestinian Camp hosted many of their neighbors, but they did so as they themselves struggled with poverty. One of the perennial difficulties families face is the cold and snow that come every winter. To help camp residents in 2017, Anera provided 440 TOMS winter boots to keep preschoolers' feet dry and project them freezing temperatures. With proper boots, the children were able to walk to school through rain, snow and below-freezing temperatures.
Solid Waste Management
Anera constructed two solid waste sorting facilities, built municipal capacity to recycle, and galvanized communities to participate by sorting their waste at home. Our work started in 2018, in Temnin El Foka in Baalbek, as well as Majdal Anjar and Mansoura in Bekaa Governorate. In 2019, we expanded to the villages of Bednayel, Temnin El Tahta and Qsarnaba. And, in 2021, we reached an additional 14 municipalities across the Bekaa Valley.
Anera inaugurated the Temnin El Foka sorting and composting facilities in the summer of 2020. Along with the sorting site in Majdal Anjar these facilities diverted an estimated 340 tons of waste from being dumped in the environment
Our solid waste management program recruited, trained and employed 300 youths, who reached out to 294,165 residents across the Bekaa Valley through outreach events, awareness sessions, distribution of bins and program monitoring.
Livelihoods
Anera’s DHIAFEE program ran from 2005 to 2008 with the aim of increasing economic opportunities in rural and other small communities by improving the quality of cottage inns and family guest houses. Participants received training in hotel management and learned how to better market and promote their inns in order to attract more tourists. In Baalbek, Anera worked with the WADA Guesthouse in Deir El Ahmar
Education
Job Skills Training
Across Lebanon, including in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Anera implements a market-driven vocational education program to provide youth with a package of technical and soft skills that help them get jobs. This competency-based training program is flexible and contextualized to the ever-changing crises that hit Lebanon. Anera focuses on in-demand skills and cash-for-work opportunities that lead to long-term employment. Our courses cover many subjects within the areas of construction, healthcare, IT, food production and agriculture, and sewing.
Now I have the opportunity to build a career in something I actually enjoy! I am here at a professional company gaining experience and I plan on focusing my energies in this field.
— Ali (pictured above), 18, is from Baalbek. Like so many Lebanese students, he couldn't complete high school because of the economic collapse. Ali loves carpentry, so he took Anera's course as an opportunity for a career path.
Non-formal Education
Since the mid-2010s, Anera has implemented a program across the country, including in Baalbek-Hermel, to help Syrian refugee youth acquire impactful skills to enhance their educational and employment prospects. The program provides courses in a range of vocational skills, as well as health and life skills, and classes to help students improve their literacy and math skills.
