Reporting by Faris al-Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Many Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon do not have the minimum living needs like drinking water, electricity and sanitation, not to forget fuel and source of heating in winter, because they are out of official coverage of the UN and other humanitarian agencies.
Khalil Homsi, an activist, reveals that many Egyptian youth and a Syrian donor have volunteered to buy the winter needs for Arqa camp, where they provided 40 fireplaces and 7800 liter of Fuel.
The activist explains to Zaman al-Wasl that they are planning to replace Arqa’s camp with another one where it would have better living conditions, and they try to rent a land and get official help from the Municipality to provide electricity, water and fixing roads on a land of 2500 square meter to rent for $2000.
“The plan is to build mud houses in the land and other caravans, where some people donated the wood, and many volunteers are ready for work, but the only obstacle is funding the license in the Municipality which costs $6000” the activist details.
Al-Homsi added that camp would accommodate 80 families, with a medical centre, a school, and houses would cost $500 each of two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen.
Khalid al-Homsi explains that scattered camps in Lebanon are neglected and do not have any services because they are out of official UN coverage or other humanitarian agencies. “They accommodate around 6000 people, but concentrating on Arsal, resulted in neglecting those camps”
Al-Honsi details that 800 people have extremely hard living conditions because of their disabilities and lack of conditions suitable for them.
“Most refugees in those camps are from Kalamoun, when they came to Lebanon, some people donated lands, others built a school and medical point, which are far from some scattered camps restricting using them, but we would build a medical centre and a school inside the new camp”
The activist added that because scattered camps are distant from each other, some camps lose a chance of getting donations, when people come and distribute their donations in the first collection they meet.
Al-Homsi thanked the Egyptian youth for their belief in the Syrian revolution and their help.
In the end, the activist summarized their future plans: “we work to collect all those scattered camps in one area, and provide them as many service as possible, we plan to find a medical centre, a school, but the main point we need to guarantee is keeping people in the assigned land till the end of Syrian revolution, when we would dismantle everything and return the land as it was.”
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