Desperate Lebanese families are cutting down on essential expenses and are sending children out to work to help make ends meet, the UN children’s agency has revealed in its latest assessment of conditions in the bankrupt country.
Four years into an economic downturn, Lebanon’s currency has lost 98 per cent of its value, inflation stands at 269 per cent, 80 per cent of all residents live in poverty and 700,000 children are not in school.
Introducing the report, Futures on Hold: Lebanon’s Worsening Crisis, Unicef representative Edouard Beigbeder said the “compounding crises facing the children of Lebanon are creating an unbearable situation – breaking their spirits, damaging their mental health and threatening to wipe out their hope for a better future”.
The report said 86 per cent of households do not have enough money to secure essentials, an increase from 76 per cent last year while 38 per cent are selling possessions to survive as compared to 28 per cent last year.
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“Many families cannot afford the quantity and variety of food they need,” the report said, adding that a third of households reported that “at least one child went to bed hungry”.
Some 42 per cent of children due not have access to healthcare and transportation due to cost.
Stress has caused parents to be “less tolerant toward their children’s behaviour” and led to harsh treatment. Children have become “anxious, nervous or worried” and feeling sad or depressed.
An earlier Unicef study showed that family relationships have broken down and children have lost trust in their parents who cannot provide their most urgent needs.
The UN agency said the 750,000 children among the 1.5 million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon are worse off than Lebanese children.
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“The sheer magnitude of the crisis continues to require swift, determined action by Lebanon’s government to safeguard children and ensure they receive the services, support and protection they need so they can develop to their full potential,” it said.
The agency welcomed the adoption of a National Social Protection Strategy but there is little chance this plan will be implemented soon. Lebanon has had no president since Michel Aoun retired in October and has had a caretaker government since May last year. Repeated attempts to agree a coalition government have failed.
If and when a government is finally agreed, it is expected to give priority to ending hours-long electricity outages and providing safe drinking water.
Meanwhile, the head of UN agency caring for Palestinians, Philippe Lazzarini, has warned that 700 schools and 140 health centres for Palestinians living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine could close in September due to funding shortfalls. In Lebanon, 93 per cent of 479,000 UN-registered Palestinian refugees live in poverty.
