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External Links:
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Lebanon
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Preventing Injuries and Expanding Economic Opportunities for Landmine Survivors
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Two COOP participants: a man grows
herbs to sell; a woman will sell eggs
from her chickens. Photo
courtesy
of World Rehabilitation Fund |
Implementing Partner: World Rehabilitation Fund, Inc. (WRF)
Funding Period: September 2006 - February 2009
Amount: $3,346,850
Purpose: Develop practices, policies, attitudes, and
capacity to address the socioeconomic problems and social burden resulting
from landmines and acts of war. This includes the development and
implementation of programs to decrease landmine injuries, assist victims of
landmines and war, alleviate social burden, and expand economic
opportunities within and around targeted communities.
Phase IV Objectives
- Expand the viability of the Resource Cooperative (COOP) as a sound business entity in accordance with transparent cooperative and business principles
- Strengthen and expand successful income-generating programs and initiate new ones that will 1) increase membership in the COOP;
2) upgrade the business viability, sustainability, and income-generating capabilities of the COOP; and 3) decrease the vulnerability of the COOP to unforeseen developments, such as Avian influenza.
- Enable COOP governing bodies to assume full control of its business operations
- Assist the COOP, its current members, and others in the community in obtaining business loans so they can expand their income-generating activities
- Build and commission a "Cooperative Center" to house the COOP, as well as project operations
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| Learn more about USAID's Agricultural Cooperative in South Lebanon |
In 1996, WRF launched a nationwide prosthetics and orthotics program,
facilitating greater awareness and understanding of the magnitude of the
landmine problem and the related social burden. Findings from this effort
established the foundation for a multifaceted nationwide humanitarian mine action
program launched with USAID funding in June 1998. That program was the first of its
kind in Lebanon and the region.
Today, WRF manages a program, which represents the fourth phase in USAID and WRF's ongoing efforts to assist survivors of landmine accidents. Now, the program fosters the economic inclusion of landmine survivors
and war-affected individuals. Landmine survivors
engage in income-generating activities such as egg production, beekeeping, and
honey processing, and other competitive agricultural enterprises.
Beneficiaries are involved as stakeholders in a resource cooperative
that provides employment opportunities and management, marketing, and product
processing services.
Eggs, honey, and medicinal herbs, and chicken and their by-products are
sold by the resource cooperative or directly by beneficiaries. The profits enhance the lives of beneficiaries, their extended families, and
the community at large. The program also accommodates the lifestyles of its participants. They need not alter
their lives or their established social roles and obligations—for example,
a widow can be involved without having to leave her home and family.
The program has shown favorably results. It significantly impacts the lives and well-being of hundreds of participants,
as well as those of families and communities. On a broader scale, the program has yielded a
better understanding of the challenges facing community-based development
projects targeting disadvantaged individuals.
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