On Monday, the UN’s World Food Programme said it would suspend monthly aid to 1.7 million refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon because of a lack of funds.
In Lebanon, about 900,000 refugees registered with WFP will not receive any help in December.
Zouhour, who lives with her four children in a converted shop in a Beirut suburb, talks to Syria Deeply:
When did you move to Lebanon?
We arrived in Beirut one year and five months ago. We are from Rastan, a city close to Homs. The area was bombed continuously by the regime, with tanks and planes.
We escaped, then moved from place to place in Syria. Every time the regime bombed a new area we were forced to move. We finally settled in Salamieh. It is a quiet city without bombings, but there were no jobs and no way to make money there. Because of the war, the economy was very slow. So we decided to go to Lebanon.
I now live here in a small shop with three of my daughters and my son. All the other shops around are rented by families from Rastan. This place is not good: there are leaks in the roof and there is always water everywhere on the floor. It is very humid. We all sleep in one room. One of my daughters got married three days ago and moved in with her husband. She is 16. Life is hard for my four other kids who live with me. They don’t go to school.
What does the WFP aid mean to you?
Zouhour: It is all we have. My only son, who is 15, is a day laborer but he never earns more than $260 a month. It is enough to pay the rent, which is $250, but we need the WFP money in order to eat. We have received this aid since we registered with WFP, on arrival in Lebanon.
Why did the WFP not inform us this would happen? I don’t understand. A few months ago, we received an SMS from the organization that told us that the monthly aid would be reduced, to $30 instead of $40. Why aren’t they doing the same this time today?
When aid gets cut off in December, what will you do?
I have some family members in Lebanon but the situation is very bad for them too, they are poor and also have a family to support. They cannot help us. There are no other organizations that help us. We just rely on the WFP aid. If we do not get it anymore, I don’t know how we will live.
I wish we could go back to Syria, but it is impossible now. Rastan is under siege. There are so many people we know who died and others who continue to suffer….
(Featured Photo: Refugee family in Lebanon, February 2013 — Lynsey Addario/New York Times)
