Bolstering the capabilities of Lebanese civil society organisations

The first Shabake (network, in Arabic) project began in 2019, working with Lebanese CSOs to build their capacities in order to respond to crises in general, and more specifically to the Syrian refugee crisis which had a profound humanitarian and socio-economic impact on the country. Building on the first Shabake’s concept of stabilisation and resilience, Shabake 2, which began in 2022 and will run until 2025, works with civil society organisations (CSOs) in Lebanon to implement actions that will reduce vulnerabilities, improve localisation of aid for populations in need, and efficiently respond to emergency situations and ongoing crises in Lebanon.

Shabake 2 is implemented by Expertise France and financed by the Agence française de développement (AFD) and the Centre de Crise et de Soutien (CDCS) of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. 38 CSOs are partners of the Shabake 2 project, including the sustainable human development organisation, Akkarouna, in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, Sawa for Development and Aid in the Bekaa Valley, and the SHEILD association in southern Lebanon. SHEILD was founded 18 years ago to help vulnerable people in the south. It has a rapid response and crisis response unit which has been particularly active since the escalation of violence along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel since October 7, 2023.

Civilian casualties have surged due to Israeli airstrikes, water infrastructures have been damaged as have healthcare facilities. Basic services are extremely limited, schools have only been open periodically, and the number of internally displaced people is increasing. Furthermore, the livelihood of many people in the south comes from agriculture, and farmers are unable to reach their fields or harvest crops because of shelling.

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Eva Homsi lives in Marjayoun, ten kilometres from the Israeli border. She heads SHEILD’s Protection Programme which concentrates on the following areas of intervention: Saida, Jezzine, Zahrani, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbail, Hasbaya and Marjayoun.

The Shabake 2 project began working with SHEILD in December 2023, helping them organise five mobile clinics headed by social workers who run psychosocial support groups for families both local and displaced with a particular focus on children.

Since early October 30,000 children have fled southern Lebanon with their families and an estimated 20,000 children have not been able to go to school.

Given that the south is living an emergency situation, says Homsi, referring to nearly daily strikes by Israel, one of her challenges is trying to ensure that her staff remains safe. She is in constant communication with the various municipalities so that “we can take calculated risks regarding shelling, but still, you cannot guarantee safety.”

The challenges are innumerable, among which “a big lack of mental health services,” says Homsi. “People need real and deep therapy and for longer than just three months.”

Most of the time, she says, NGOs distribute physical objects, such as mattresses or pillows and blankets, but people are also in need of healthcare and are unable to pay for it. There are only two or three organisations in the south which provide health services.

Homsi recalled a child with diabetes who is displaced with his family from his home in Bint Jbail. “They used to receive medication for him for free but now they are in Nabatiyeh where they couldn’t find his medication. The mother started having panic attacks because she couldn’t find medicine for her child and everyone in the family was overwhelmed.” Luckily this particular story has a temporary happy ending with Homsi finding a doctor in Nabatiyeh who followed up on the boy’s case with the Ministry of Health and ensured medication for him for the next six months.

Based on the lessons learned from the Shabake 2 project Homsi says it would be constructive in the future to look into high-risk situations where a flexible emergency budget could be designed. There are many examples of unexpected costs in close case management of families in emergency situations and flexibility in these cases is a necessity.

Coordination and direct communication within Shabake 2 have been very successful, Homsi underlines. When working in emergency situations “having a support system is so helpful,” says Homsi. The Shabake 2 team “wasn’t just asking for goals and numbers, they were also asking if we were safe, and sometimes we stayed on the phone together until 11pm.”