Published : 11-12-2022
An elderly Palestinian woman in Lebanon continues to launch cries for help over her deteriorating health condition.
The cash-stripped refugee suffers lung cancer and needs urgent chemical radiation. She is sheltered in Wadi AlZineh, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
Medics said she is in urgent need of 30 chemical radiation sessions, at an estimated cost of 70,000 million Lebanese pounds (1,800 USD) and another 400 USD as travel expenses to Nabih Berri Hospital.
AGPS is deeply alarmed by the dire situation of Palestine refugees in Lebanon and the precariousness in which they live, particularly in the last year of acute financial crisis and pandemic. Many Palestine refugees live in 12 overcrowded camps across the country.
The most vulnerable, including Palestine refugees who fled from Syria, do not get financial assistance to buy food and other basic necessities. With the current financial crisis, most Palestine refugees have found themselves slipping further into destitution.
The “dollar crisis” in Lebanon, where the official exchange rate of the US dollar against the Lebanese pound is nearly ten times lower than the black-market rate, has seen the purchasing power of the UNRWA cash assistance slashed tenfold.
Even before the pandemic and the financial meltdown of Lebanon, Palestine refugees lived in poverty and faced systemic restrictions that limited their employment, property ownership and, at times, movement. Joblessness has been high in Palestine refugee camps for many years, but the collapse of the Lebanese economy in the last few months has left many of them feeling desperate, especially as UNRWA has been struggling with an acute financial crisis itself. COVID-19 has been the latest in a series of recent devastating blows to a community that has suffered marginalization and uncertainty for decades.
An elderly Palestinian woman in Lebanon continues to launch cries for help over her deteriorating health condition.
The cash-stripped refugee suffers lung cancer and needs urgent chemical radiation. She is sheltered in Wadi AlZineh, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
Medics said she is in urgent need of 30 chemical radiation sessions, at an estimated cost of 70,000 million Lebanese pounds (1,800 USD) and another 400 USD as travel expenses to Nabih Berri Hospital.
AGPS is deeply alarmed by the dire situation of Palestine refugees in Lebanon and the precariousness in which they live, particularly in the last year of acute financial crisis and pandemic. Many Palestine refugees live in 12 overcrowded camps across the country.
The most vulnerable, including Palestine refugees who fled from Syria, do not get financial assistance to buy food and other basic necessities. With the current financial crisis, most Palestine refugees have found themselves slipping further into destitution.
The “dollar crisis” in Lebanon, where the official exchange rate of the US dollar against the Lebanese pound is nearly ten times lower than the black-market rate, has seen the purchasing power of the UNRWA cash assistance slashed tenfold.
Even before the pandemic and the financial meltdown of Lebanon, Palestine refugees lived in poverty and faced systemic restrictions that limited their employment, property ownership and, at times, movement. Joblessness has been high in Palestine refugee camps for many years, but the collapse of the Lebanese economy in the last few months has left many of them feeling desperate, especially as UNRWA has been struggling with an acute financial crisis itself. COVID-19 has been the latest in a series of recent devastating blows to a community that has suffered marginalization and uncertainty for decades.
