A community of families in the dark – help us get COVID-19 response to Shatila

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has impacted all communities; whether under strict quarantine in Italy or Spain, or enforcing social distancing and self-quarantine in other parts of Europe and the rest of the world.

There are however, often forgotten communities either receive no official guidance, or are completely in the dark. One of these communities is the hundreds of families of our students at the Burka Ahla centre that live in Shatila in Beirut, Lebanon.

The people in Shatila do not have any awareness of the COVID-19 coronavirus to face the risk of outbreak and the spread of the virus. Subsequently, they are not yet taking the issue seriously as it should be taken.

People still live their lives naturally and are not aware of the necessary measure of quarantining—life continues in Shatila though there is an apparent fear of something that is unknown.

The refugee families in Shatila suffer from a lack of medical and preventive supplies in addition to their lack of experience in dealing with viruses. For example, families do not have access to hand sanitizers or cleaning and antiseptic materials against viruses, therefore sterilization is not effective in this case. Shatila is a camp that houses well over 10,000 people (of the conditions in Shatila these people cannot isolate), meaning that an outbreak of this virus could lead to an uncontrollable spread that could impact not only the lives of those living in the camp but the entire country.

People need to be educated about how to deal with the virus and they are in need of protective materials and equipment.

This families in our community in Shatila needs three basic things:

1) hygiene materials in order to sanitize their place of stay and be sure they are safe from contracting the virus

2) accurate information on the COVID-19 coronavirus and how to use those sanitation materials for prevention and

3) access to screening and immediate medical services

In order to protect this community, help #FlattenTheCurve and provide them these three basic needs, we need your support.

Please follow our social media over the next few days, where we will be providing details of the situation for our families in the refugee community living in Lebanon and how we will be working to #FlattenTheCurve.

If you wish to help us get started, donate now.