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Lebanon
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Download a program description (doc, 31k)
Preventing Injuries and Expanding Economic Opportunities for Landmine Survivors
Implementing Partner: World Rehabilitation Fund, Inc. (WRF)
Funding Period: June 1998 – December
2006 (two-year costed extension in process)
Amount: $6,174,010
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.
Accomplishments
- Added more than forty-six new beneficiaries over a period of
one year, expanding the number of direct beneficiaries through the life of
the project to 170 men and women. Beneficiaries maintained earnings at more
that $200 per month
- Expanded the institutional and economic viability and sustainability of the
resource cooperative that was created through the project
- Introduced a new agricultural production and processing line of chicken for
broilers
- Introduced a new accounting / financial management system that upgrades
governance and ensures transparency and accountability
- Purchased a piece of land and initiated the process of building a community
development center to house the resource cooperative and its related functions
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The Middle East confrontation and internal civil conflict brought Lebanon to the
verge of collapse in the 1980s. The population at large and many communities were
burdened by injuries and fatalities due to acts of war and to hundreds of thousands of
landmines that were left in many areas throughout the country. Prior to the reoccurrence
of conflict in 2006, this environment had stabilized to an extent that enabled the World
Rehabilitation Fund (WRF) to embark on a USAID-funded initiative to contribute to
revitalizing severely affected communities, focusing primarily on agricultural and
economic development.
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Young landmine survivors and their
families at the Jizzine center |
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
set the foundation for a multifaceted nationwide humanitarian mine action
program launched with USAID funding in June 1998. This program is the first of its
kind in Lebanon and the region.
Today, with USAID support WRF manages the “Expanding Economic Opportunities for
Survivors of Landmines and Victims of War in the District of Jizzine in South
Lebanon" program, designed to foster economic inclusion of landmine survivors
and war-affected individuals. Through this initiative, 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 legal 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, with significant
financial returns sufficient to enhance the lives of their extended families, and
the community at large. The program allows for benefit without the need to alter
lifestyle or compromise on established social roles and obligations—for example,
a widow can be involved without having to leave her home and family.
Four years into its life, the program has been shown to favorably and
significantly impact the lives and well-being of hundreds of participants
as well as those of families and communities. The program has also enabled
better understanding of the challenges facing community-based development
projects targeting disadvantaged individuals.
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