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From 1975 until the early 1990s, civil war in Lebanon destroyed not only lives, homes and infrastructure, but also its fragile society. The country continued to suffer through another conflict in July 2006. Reconstruction from these wars left Lebanon heavily in debt and continued political unrest has prevented its economy from fully recovering. In response, IOCC has been operational in Lebanon since 2001 implementing both development and relief programs.
Since December 2006, and with a grant of $4.7 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IOCC has been supporting more than 213 public schools in northern and southern Lebanon, the Beqaa, Beirut, and Mount Lebanon, through the Education Assistance for Development (LEAD) Program. The Program benefits nearly 75,000 public school students with science instruction laboratories and supplies, computer labs with internet access, media libraries, repairs to sanitary facilities, and necessary administrative equipment. The program also includes social awareness and educational activities that target students, parents and teachers and provide awareness and knowledge on issues relating to their physical, mental, and social well-being. LEAD also aims to build up community development and outreach activities through Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs), student clubs, and youth camps that guarantee active community involvement.
Programs Prior to 2008
In 2001, IOCC began the School Feeding and Education Program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The program continued through 2007, and provided weekly nutritious snacks to more than 45,000 students in 243 public schools during the 2006-2007 school year. Posters, magazines and other educational materials were also distributed to schools to promote lessons on nutrition, civics and hygiene. The program also included repairing school buildings (new bathrooms, roofs, painting, etc.); capacity building for parents, students and administrators; providing equipment for schools.
Following the July 2006 war in Lebanon, IOCC began providing emergency relief to displaced families. With funding from the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and support from Action by Churches Together (ACT), IOCC provided hygiene kits, kitchen utensils, blankets and fuel for heating to more than 3,500 families in 65 of the hardest-hit villages in the South. IOCC also repaired 23 schools that had been damaged during the war and executed water and sanitation projects in 38 villages. In order to support returnees to reestablish their livelihoods, IOCC also provided villagers with grants to start small businesses and farmers with transplants, seeds, and agricultural tools to help them return to their fields, as well as implemented psychosocial support activities that helped ease villagers' war trauma.
Lebanon stories from the archives
For more information about this country email relief@iocc.org.
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