Turkey charities distribute aid to Palestine refugees in Lebanon

Children are seen at a refugee camp in Beirut (Ratib al-Safadi - Anadolu Agency)

Middle East Monitor  /  December 14, 2020

Turkish charities have been providing various aid to hundreds of Palestinian refugee families living under difficult conditions in camps in different regions of Lebanon, Anadolu news agency reported yesterday.

The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) based in Istanbul distributed diesel fuel to more than 350 families living in the Burj al-Barajnah camp in the capital Beirut and Al-Jalil camp in Baalbek.

At the same time, IHH provided food and personal care items to 250 families and financial support for many unemployed refugees in those camps.

Ahmad Abu Husain, who had been unemployed for over a year and recently started to work again with the charity’s donation of a rickshaw, expressed his happiness, thanking the Turkish benefactors.

With its battery-powered lighting project, the Sadakatasi Association provided a solution to the electricity shortage of Palestinian refugees who spend most of the day in the dark due to the chronic power outages in Lebanon.

Kemal Ozdal, the head of the association, said the project will provide a constant electricity supply for the refugees’ homes.

More than 483,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon. The number rises to 600,000 when unregistered refugees are taken into account, according to UN data.

Approximately 62 per cent of the Palestinian refugees, who make up about ten per cent of Lebanon’s population, live in these camps, where infrastructure and social facilities are very limited.