HEALTH
Hygiene kits and education promote public health in refugee camps in Lebanon
Dec, 2019
Enabling healthy communities for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
“We are on the right track for a better and cleaner community.” — Lilian, Anera volunteer from Burj El Barajneh
Good hygiene practices are essential. This is especially true in a place with crowded conditions and few public services. In September, Anera organized hygiene awareness sessions for parents in the Burj El Barajneh Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon. To complement the session, Anera's partner, Lutheran World Relief, provided hygiene kits.
Educational public health events like this help to foster improved health and sanitation in Lebanon’s refugee camps. Mariam Shiekh Issa is the manager at a local partner organization, the Women’s Program Association in Burj El Barajneh. Mariam, a Palestinian refugee herself says,
“Having hygiene kits to support our message and help people actually practice what they have learned about is so important. I want to thank Lutheran World Relief and Anera for their consistent contributions to make sure that our community is really learning and getting personal hygiene right.”
Lilian Samarawi is a Palestinian refugee and volunteer with Anera. She says that the hygiene kits allow for hands-on practice to drive home the message.
“The hygiene kits are a basic need for our parents here. Also, they play a big role in understanding everything that was going on during the sessions. When we add the hygiene kits to our awareness sessions and make sure that the parents are using them, we know we are on the right track for a better and cleaner community.”
Samira Saleh, is another volunteer with our health and sanitation program in the camp. She finds the awareness sessions useful in her own life, and has shared what she has learned with her family.
“We have changed a lot in our behavior as a family. We learned how to wash our hands in the best way and got other helpful personal hygiene guidance.
“And as a volunteer in this project, I saw a difference in my community. I realized while leading these sessions that parents need direct practice doing everything we are teaching them. The hygiene kits have helped us to do exactly that.”
The initiative aims to improve the health outcomes of Palestinian children in refugee camps through hygiene promotion activities. The events are designed to change children’s personal hygiene practices.
Beyond public health, Anera also partners with Lutheran World Relief to promote educational opportunities for at-risk youth in Lebanon. The school kits that LWR provides to youth in Anera’s basic and vocational education courses have given disadvantaged students some of the tools they need to do well in their studies.
The Community-Based Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion Project project is implemented by Anera in collaboration with local partners and funded by UNICEF.
