More than half a million children in Beirut, Lebanon, are struggling for their survival in a country in the midst of economic sinking, the NGO Save the Children lamented on Wednesday (July 29th). Lebanon has been going through the worst economic and financial crisis in its history for months, amplified by the coronavirus pandemic and marked by a plunge in the national currency, a jump in unemployment and hyperinflation.
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In the Greater Beirut region, which includes the capital and its suburbs, 910,000 people, including 564,000 children, are now struggling to meet their most basic needs, including sufficient food, the NGO warned.
Since last September, commodity prices have climbed 169%, while unemployment has increased by 35% in the formal sector and up to 45% in the informal sector, and the purchasing power of families has fallen. by 85%. “ This crisis hits everyone - Lebanese families, Palestinian and Syrian refugees. We will start to see children starving before the end of the year, ”warned Jad Sakr, Acting Director of Save the Children in Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including less than one million registered with the UN, and some 174,000 Palestinian refugees. “ Because of the coronavirus, my dad doesn't work and we don't eat. I want to work to help my parents and feed my sisters , says Sara, a nine-year-old Syrian, quoted in the Save the Children report. My sister cries all the time because she wants milk and we can't buy it for her ”.
The current crisis spares no social class. " Children, even those from Lebanese families with average income, eat less and less or nothing at all for a whole day (...) In some cases, children work to help their families, " added Jad Sakr.
Two-thirds of Lebanese households have seen their incomes decline or decline since the start of the crisis, while 20% of Lebanese families and 33% of Syrian families have had to skip meals or not have enough to eat for an entire day, said recalled the NGO, citing the World Food Program (WFP).
Save the Children urged the Lebanese government to urgently distribute social assistance to the benefit of the most vulnerable families, and to establish, in the longer term, a social protection and pension system for the self-employed or working in the informal economy.