Improving Living Conditions in Palestinian Gatherings Host Communities – UNDP quarterly briefing (Issue 2)

HIGHLIGHTS

17 electricity projects completed in Tyre and Ain El Helwe Adjacent Areas and water and Sanitation projects launched across Lebanon

850 shelter units in 20 Gatherings across Lebanon assessed to be rehabilitated and equipped with WASH facilities

2200 students from all educational ^V levels engaged in a WASH competition for the UNRWA schools in Ain El Helwe

Improving Living Conditions in Palestinian Gatherings Host Communities is a project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that falls under the UNDP Lebanon Stabilization and Recovery Program — Supporting Resilience in a Time of Crisis.

Active in the 42 Palestinian Gatherings across Lebanon since 2012, this project is designed to help stabilize and develop the resilience of these host communities, home to 110,000 original Palestinian dwellers (PRL) and recently some 30,000 Palestinian and Syrian refugees (PRS and SRS) as a result of the Syrian crisis.

In the previous quarter, we reached over 29,000 beneficiaries by upgrading WASH and basic urban services (BUS), enhancing shelter conditions, and raising awareness on healthy and environmental practices, as well through coordination efforts of NGOs' and agencies' response in the Gatherings.

NEWS & VIEWS

COORDINATION AND INFORMATION SHARING

Gatherings Working Group Kick-off in Tyre

In May 2015, UNDP decided to move the meetings of the Gatherings Working Group (GWG) that it chairs to Tyre, as most gatherings (and consequently NGOs) are based in the South. This quarter, UNDP organized two GWG meetings in the UNDP office in Tyre, in which participating NGOs agreed to continue meeting on a monthly basis. Several needed coordination initiatives have been planned as a result of these meetings, including but not limited to a coordinated shelter assessment and a seminar on housing and land property rights.

Participatory Community Planning Report for Gatherings in Saida and Tyre

In March 2015, UNDP and Beyond Reform and Development Group (BRDI) started a participatory community planning, involving around 50 representatives of popular and local committees in 12 Gatherings in South Lebanon as well as concerned municipalities and local NGOs among other stakeholders. This exercise was concluded by an Iftar dinner for participants, in the presence of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ross Mountain and the Swiss Ambassador to Lebanon Francois Barras. Before the dinner, UNDP and BRDI presented the main findings of a report mapping urban assets in the targeted Gatherings and proposing future interventions, based on pressing needs and challenges raised by participants throughout the exercise.

IN DEPTH

WATER BRINGS LIFE TO 400 FAMILIES IN DAOUK

Responding to the deteriorating situation of the water network in the Daouk Palestinian Gathering in Beirut, UNDP has completed in June 2015 installing a new water network to enhance the water supply for 400 families residing in the Gathering.

"You could spend four full days here with no water at all, not even a single drop in any household," says Head of the Popular Committee in Daouk Abou Ali Anbour to describe the situation in the Gathering before UNDP's intervention. "People had to buy water to shower and clean their houses. Others, who cannot afford it, walked to public water tabs outside the area to fill gallons and bottles."

Like all Palestinian Gatherings, Daouk is left unattended by any service provider. Established around Sabra area in Beirut in the early years of the Palestinian exodus (1048­1950), Daouk is becoming increasingly overcrowded, especially with the recent arrivals of refugees from Syria increasing the population by 18%.

"The old water well used to barely feed all the households in the Gatherings. In the last couple of years, water connections in Daouk became even more wretched and overloaded that water supply cut off completely for days," continues Anbour.

Rehabilitation works included installing a new pump and pipes after excavating the concrete road from the well to the main pipe as well as installing the necessary electrical boards for the pump. "As we have been waiting a long time for this intervention, the popular committee established an electrical room to preserve the new equipment provided by UNDP from environmental and human damage," explains Anbour.

"UNDP is very aware of the heavy cost of poor water on the health and economies of communities," says Project Manager Nancy Hilal to highlight the importance of this initiative. "Thanks to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, we believe this project will increase the Gathering's productivity and will allow its dwellers to practice healthy hygiene behaviors."

A Glimpse into SHABRIHA

Shabriha Gathering refers to four Palestinian-majority neighborhoods located within the Lebanese town of Shabriha, falling under the domain of Abassiyeh Municipality in Tyre in south Lebanon. First established in the early 1950s with the arrival of Palestinian refugees to Abassiyeh in search of jobs in agriculture, the Gathering of Shabriha hosts today around 2,800 recent refugees from Syria, a number exceeding its original population. In 2014, UNDP rehabilitated the Gathering's well and installed needed water connections and a water storm channel. Also last year, UNDP paved the Gathering's main road with asphalt and installed a sewage network. This quarter, we rehabilitated the electricity network in Shabriha as well as three shelters housing Palestinian refugees from Syria.

Meet Dr. MAHMOUD SULEIMAN

President of the Community Environmental Health Committee in Ain El Helwe (CEHC)

"Environmental health is the centerpiece in building any wholesome society; what if this society is a congested refugee community deprived from basic services?This in mind, we launched CEHC last year to address every dweller in our beloved camp about his/her role in building healthier individuals, families and communities.Thanks to the support of UNDP, CEHC was able to embark on activities and areas that we thought were 'too ambitious'.This year, we started working in UNRWA schools and we are leading clean-up campaigns in all Gatherings adjacent to the camp.We look forward to achieve much more through our partnership with UNDP."

Dr. Suleiman obtained his medical degree in General Medicine at Stavropol State University in Russia. In 2005, he joined the UNRWA medical team and is now a Senior Medical Officer at UNRWA Help Center 1 in Ain El Helwe. Since March 2014, Dr. Suleiman heads CEHC that is leading awareness efforts with the support of UNDP, with the aim of promoting environmental practices and systems in the camp.

For more information, please contact us: sheeraz.moujally@undp-lebprojects.org Badaro Main Street, Beirut – Nadim Comeir Bldg. 5th floor

Tel: +961 71 535144 I +961 1 384263/4

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

www.lb.undp.org

The achievements of this project are made possible thanks to the generous support of our donors:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/library/Response_to_the_Syrian_Crisis/improving-living-condition–in-palestinian–gatherings-host-comm/