Lebanon: Living on Someone Else’s Land

Nawal, her husband, and their four children have been living in a lone tent set up on rented farmland in Lebanon for more than five years since fleeing from Syria.

We visited them on the day that Medair WASH’s team was distributing handwashing stations and installing a new latrine for the family. Nawal was gracious, welcoming, and extremely thankful for the difference Medair’s support had made in their lives.

“We had to leave Syria because of conflict,” said Nawal. “My husband knew the owner of this farm, because a long time ago they traded together. When we came here from Syria, we requested permission to build our tent here. We have been living here for more than five years.”

“Back in Syria, we had our own land that we farmed, but here we live on someone else’s land.
Medair gave us water vouchers, and a truck comes here and fills our tank with water. Whenever the borehole is running, we get water. But it only runs when they need to irrigate the fields. This time of year, there is no irrigation so we need the water-trucking. We made the latrine ourselves.”

“The latrine looked like that before,” said Charbel, Medair relief worker, gesturing to an old wooden frame over a pit.