Palestinian Programme
UNICEF’s Palestinian Programme in Lebanon (PPL) assists Palestinian children and mothers in accessing healthcare, water and sanitation, education, protection, and, in the case of adolescents and youth, skill-building and employability programmes
- Available in:
- English
- العربية
Challenge
Around 210,000 Palestine refugees live in Lebanon: 180,000 Palestine Refugees from Lebanon (PRL) and 30,000 Palestine Refugees from Syria (PRS), where they are regarded as foreigners. Palestine refugees in Lebanon cannot work in as many as 39 professions such as medicine, law and engineering.
The 12 recognized Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon suffer from overcrowding, poor housing conditions and insufficient infrastructure, poverty and violence, posing significant risks for children and youth. Refugees who live outside the camps, in adjacent areas known as ‘Palestinian gatherings’, are often even more vulnerable. Palestinian refugees have been hard hit by the devastating crisis in Lebanon, which has aggravated the situation for children as their parents struggle to meet their basic needs.
At the same time, UNRWA –The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – is facing a severe funding crisis, which is affecting the provision of health, education, protection, WASH and other support to Palestinian children and their families in Lebanon.
Palestinian refugees have been hard hit by the devastating crisis in Lebanon, which has aggravated the situation for children as their parents struggle to meet their basic needs
Solutions
Urgent action is needed to help Palestinian children in Lebanon achieve their potential.
- The Government should set up the ‘Lebanese working group on Palestinian Refugees Affairs in Labour and Social Security for Palestine Refugees’ as recommended by the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), an inter-ministerial government body.
- The Government should implement the ‘Youth Strategy for Palestinian Refugees 2019-2025’, prepared by the LPDC.
- The Government should issue a long-term waiver for Palestinian students without full identity documents, residency or Lebanon entry stamps, to allow them to sit grade 9 and grade 12 exams and reduce issues with registering or staying in school.
Our key achievements
UNICEF’s support to Palestinian children and their families in Lebanon includes:
- Providing youth and adolescents with life-skills, career guidance and profiling, career development and employability skills, digital literacy, entrepreneurship skills and technology skills, vocational trainings and vocational scholarships, and entrepreneurship skills
- Supporting youth with employability and self-employment opportunities including start-ups and youth-led initiatives in the Palestinian camps and gatherings to alleviate hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis
- Enabling children aged 3 to 5 to access early childhood education provided by local partners in the Palestinian camps and gatherings;
- Supporting children in early childhood education and primary education with stationary
- Providing retention support to children aged 6 to 14 who are struggling in school and at the risk of dropping out
- Providing capacity building trainings to education personnel
- Supporting the rehabilitation of partners’ kindergartens to be more inclusive and accessible to children with disabilities
- Supporting the provision of child protection through community-based and specialized mental health and psychosocial support services for children, youth and caregivers in the Palestinian camps and gatherings
- Supporting gender-based violence prevention and intervention services
- Supporting the establishment of Child Protection Networks (CPNs) and providing them with technical support throughout the implementation process
- Raising awareness on COVID-19 prevention measures and vaccination in communities and schools
- Raising awareness on environmental sustainability in communities and schools
- Raising awareness about positive behaviours on menstrual hygiene in schools for adolescent girls and through community leaders for caregivers
- Providing COVID-19 supplies and disinfection kits to partners and children
- Procuring routine vaccines for UNRWA health clinics, strengthening the immunization supply chain and training health staff.