Lebanon Diary: Day 1

Emdad Rahman

A sane human would never wander in desperation into the home of a complete stranger with outstretched arms unless that very abode is a sanctuary safer than their own.

I arrived at my hotel gone past 4am. The Adhan call to the early morning Fajr was reverberating around the city so it was way too late to eat anything. I decided to take up the option to fast.

After some rest the Human Relief Foundation deployment team visited the local mall to pick up toys for distribution to 321 children at the big Beqaa Valley Al-Jarahiyya camp in the Marj region which hosts around 200 families where such is the congestion that there are eight families living in a single tent.

Roughly one third of the population here in Lebanon are Syrian refugees. That’s the equivalent of 25 million refugees moving to the UK. The impact has been phenomenally challenging to say the least and amongst countless issues there’s a lot of tension and racism.

Arsal hosts the main camps in the valley inclusters where we were working. The people staying in camps have to pay rent so the situation is pretty grim.

As part of their daily living some refugees receive vouchers, others beg, and there are quite a few who are enterprising, who sell refuse plastic and tissues for a meagre income.

We delivered food packs, sweets, toys, essentials and broke our Ramadan fast with our hosts. It was a real eye opener and it was clear the team were awash with emotion.

We rest up and get ready for day 2 which will be even more intense but the team is up for any challenge right now.

emdad #thewanderinglondoner