Living in a Barn in Snowy Lebanon, a Syrian Mom Braces for Winter
More than half of the residents in Wadi Khaled live under the poverty line, with a large portion of them being Syrian refugees.
Back home in Syria, Nadia Al Hammoud had a house and a little farm. Now the mother of four is a refugee, living in a cattle barn in Lebanon. She fled Al Qusayr, Homs with her husband and four children in 2012, as the war took away all they had.
The family of six ran away to save their lives, leaving behind any legal documents. Paperless, they settled in Wadi Khaled, a rural region on the Syrian-Lebanese border. “There are about 10,000 families residing in Wadi Khaled, equally divided between original Lebanese residents and refugee families who fled the civil war in Syria,” said Ali Al Badawi, the Mayor of Al Rama village in the Wadi Khaled area.
Poor Living Conditions for Syrian Refugees in Winter
“We use candles at night, but now we have this battery-powered light,” said Nadia. “It’s a great support.”
Nadia and her family live in a single shoddy room in the cowshed. It has a cement floor that becomes frigid in the winter, walls that leak rainwater, and a roof rusted with asbestos. There are no glass windows in the shed, only open holes that let in the cold despite Nadia’s best efforts to seal them with nylon bags. But at 600 meters above sea level, the region is cold and windy. Winters see heavy snows.
The converted barn, where Nadia lives with her family of six, offers very little protection from the cold.
This winter, ANERA distributed winter protection kits to 1,500 Syrian refugee families like Nadia’s. The families reside in Wadi Khaled and Berkayel, both in northern Lebanon. The UN reports that the area is one of Lebanon’s “most deprived regions.” Of the 1.1 million residents, roughly 65% are under the poverty line. The crisis in Syria greatly affected the region, as 300,000 refugees have settled there after fleeing war.
Winter Boots and Battery Rechargeable Lights Support Moms Like Nadia
Battery rechargeable lights are a necessity in villages like Wadi Khaled, where residents get only three to six hours of electricity per day.
The winter kits include warm clothing, boots and battery rechargeable lights to address the lack of reliable electricity. On average, there are three to six hours of electricity per day, and many Syrian families cannot afford to buy generators.
“We use candles at night, but now we have this light,” said Nadia. “The light is a great support to me, especially when one of the kids wake up at night.” Zahraa, Nadia’s youngest, was excited to slip on her new cozy winter boots and stow away her slippers for the summer. “My siblings will be very happy when they return from school and see the new things we’ve got,” said Zahraa.
ANERA distributed the kits as part of its annual winterization program to help protect Syrian refugees in winter. Most of these families are enduring harsh conditions. As winter sets into the cold, hilly regions of Lebanon, these kits are a necessity for helping Syrian refugees keep warm.
Before Zahraa received her winter boots, she wore plastic sandals in Lebanon’s cold and snowy winter.
