Lebanon: Helping One Syrian Refugee Adapt to a New Life

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We became Humanity & Inclusion on 1/24/2018

Ali, 20, was left paraplegic after being injured in a bombing in 2013. The young Syrian refugee now lives with his family in a makeshift camp in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon. For several months, a Handicap International team has been helping him adapt to his disability.

Spring has arrived in Beqaa Valley. The mantle of snow that covered the mountains has melted, revealing grassy fields below. But with each passing year, the fields shrink and the makeshift camps grow. There are now some 4,000 informal tented settlements (ITS) in Lebanon, 2,500 of which are scattered throughout the Beqaa Valley. Today, a Handicap International team is traveling to Majdel Anjar, in the heartof the valley, to meet with Ali. The young man greets Elias, a social worker, and Cynthia, a physical therapist, in front of his family’s tent.

Although Ali used to work in the fields back in Syria, it never occurred to him that he might one day live in one, even less so in Lebanon. That was before a few tragic seconds changed his life forever. His arms crossed and a weary look on his face, he recounts: “We were coming back from the mosque with my father and we decided to visit our neighbors. We had just entered their apartment when it was hit by a bomb. My neighbors were all killed, my father lost part of his hearing and my back was hit by a shrapnel that