Picking up the pieces, looking to the future in Lebanon

I am the Executive Director for the Society for Inclusion and Development in Communities and Care for All, a local NGO based in Beirut, Lebanon. I’m also President of the Social Workers’ Syndicate in Lebanon.

I’ve been working on issues related to HIV and key populations for the past 30 years. We deliver services and we also change the environment. We want to be more open when it comes to issues related to stigma and discrimination. We are on the frontline in the fight against AIDS and were one of the first organisations working on HIV, not just in Lebanon, but in the region.

There has been a lot of damage caused by the bombings — both people and facilities have been affected. We’ve had medics and other professionals who died during the war and many public facilities and primary healthcare were destroyed. It will take years to recover, and during this time there will be many people in some parts of Lebanon who will not able be able to access any kind of services.

For the past three months, it has been very, very hectic, very dangerous

We checked on our beneficiaries because 80% of them were displaced: they left everything and they went out from their houses in the middle of the night. When they left, they were very worried, angry and afraid of what will happen to their treatment, what will happen with them.

Who will accept them if they will know they are people living with HIV? Or if they are being treated for substance use? We contacted other shelters able to receive them. Some people did not survive, others were separated from their families. It hurt people and it will leave them with more fear and more anxiety. It was very anxious period.

Some people were afraid to talk to us, but would reach out to others. So we developed a list of tips to be shared among healthcare providers who there were going to these places.

Many people left their houses without anything; they left their medications behind, so they were worried. Also, they don’t have any money with them, so they were worried about being able to pay for their antiretroviral treatment. And, on top of all of this, they were worried about people discovering that they are undergoing treatment for substance use or for HIV. They were very anxious about this. And we had people who were rejected from the community shelter because they knew about their HIV status or because they are LGBTQ+.

Also, some people don’t even think that gender-based violence can happen during war. They don’t think that sexual and reproductive health is needed during an emergency, they just think about food and shelter. This is important, of course, and the protection of children is vital, but also adults and adolescents are at risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence. They were very anxious about this.

There is discrimination related to gender and to sexual orientation and the voice of these people [who discriminate] is loud and they are effective. They can influence our government, ministers and parliamentarians and religious leaders can talk with discrimination against people living with HIV, people who use drugs and those with diverse thoughts.

 We had people who were rejected from the community shelter because people knew about their [HIV] status or because they come from a LGBTQ+ background

It’s also very sad. Now you can see young people are desperate and are looking to other countries and want to leave Lebanon. And with this migration we cannot build a country. We need all the people and the young people and the next generation to be present and to build, and to have hope in their land.

We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or even in one hour or in two hours. So yes, it is hectic, but it will be okay. The people of Lebanon are full of life and always have been. We still have hope, and we are resilient.