A safe place for Syrian women fleeing war

Then, with the escalation of the Syrian civil war they lost everything. One day in February 2012, Fatima’s oldest son was pulled off the street in their hometown of Homs and arrested. Accused of being a member of the Free Syrian Army anti-government rebels, he was brought to a detention center and tortured for 48 hours before he managed to escape through a broken bathroom window.

 

“We knew we had to flee immediately,” Fatima says through a translator. “They would come looking for my son and then for us.”

 

The family immediately fled east to the border with Lebanon. After nearly 20 hours of walking they finally reached Arsal, a town of 40,000 people in the Bekaa Valley on the Lebanon side of the border. 

 

“All we have are the few things we could carry, some clothes, plates and cups,” Fatima says.

 

Fatima is one of the many women who have sought comfort and support in one of two centers for refugee women and girls that the IRC has opened in Lebanon in partnership with the local aid group ABAAD Resource Center for Gender Equality. Located on a small, muddy street in Arsal the center is designed to provide a safe place for women who have fled the civil war and for any other women in need. 

 

All of the centers are staffed by trained caseworkers and counselors and provide support groups where women can share their experiences and work though emotional trauma together. 

 

“It’s important to talk about my experience, as well as to support others,” says Fatima, who also works as a teacher for the center’s knitting class. “Here we can share our sadness and happiness. When I come to the center it feels like a weight is lifted off my heart.”

 

 

The centers also enable survivors of sexual assault and abuse to obtain specialized care and referrals in safety and confidence.  

 

More than 120,000 Syrian refugees have been registered in Lebanon by UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, with more than 40,000 more awaiting registration. Lebanese authorities do not permit the establishment of refugee camps so the refugees live in rented apartments, tents, behind stores or in abandoned buildings, which makes it more difficult to keep track of new arrivals and to provide aid.

 

“Because they are scattered, there’s little opportunity for women to meet other refugee women and discuss their concerns” says Lara Nuwayhid, an IRC caseworker at the Arsal center. “At the center, we also invite in organizations that specialize in health care and education and other issues of special concern to women.” 

 

Even though Lebanon is a relatively safe haven for the refugees, security is a major concern. The rumbling of shelling inside Syria is regularly heard inside Lebanon, and sometimes mortars explode in the fields and villages on the outskirts of Arsal, which is located less than 10 miles from the Syrian border.

 

The refugees' humanitarian needs meanwhile, are immense. Most have run out of money and have gone into debt by taking out loans. Families huddle in cold, concrete housing with only sporadic access to electricity. With winter now coming on, the IRC is distributing emergency supplies including clothes and hygiene articles to thousands of women and is providing financial support to help families pay for stoves and fuel.

 

“We don’t know how long we will have to stay here,” Fatima says, looking through the window toward where snow has already covered the peaks of the scenic Anti-Lebanon Mountains. “My home will always be in Syria. But when I’m here in the center, it feels like I’m back home with the friends that I love.”