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Save the Children Responding in the Middle East
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Watch video of Larry King's interview with Save the Children's emergency team leader in Lebanon 
Westport, Conn. (August 5, 2006) — Save the Children USA and its affiliated agencies worldwide are assisting children in need in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza.
The agency is responding to the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon by supporting 11 local Lebanese partners in southern Lebanon and Beirut to address immediate and urgent needs of displaced persons. Save the Children and its partners are focusing on the needs of children and families in 52 centers where displaced persons have gathered throughout the southern Lebanon (Saida and Jezzine) and Beirut.
Save the Children and its program partners in Lebanon have provided the following relief supplies to date:
- 200 family kits in Saida (including canned food, milk, tea, jam, cheese, sugar, biscuits, and baby food);
- 200 children kits in Saida (intended for children under 6 years-of-age (including a toothbrush and toothpaste, underwear, diapers, soap and a sponge, a hat, plastic slippers, two toys, biscuits, a notebook and two coloring pencils);
- Milk, diapers and children's coloring kits for over 1,300 displaced children and adults taking shelter in two school buildings in Saida;
- Milk and diapers at an additional 64 shelters for displaced children and adults, as well as over 700 hot meals;
- 30 plasma bottles/needles to Nabateyeh;
- 50 boxes of canned food to Tyre;
- Bread and diapers to 10 shelters for displaced children and adults in Jezzine;
- Soap, shampoo, detergents and toilet paper for seven shelters serving 1,325 displaced children and adults;
- Emotional support programs for 1,165 children in Saida, including art, role playing, drama and outdoor play.
Save the Children is planning to scale up its response to meet the needs of displaced children and their families, by providing supplemental foods, medicines, first aid kits, hygiene kits and sleeping materials, with a special focus on ensuring the safety and well-being of children. Drawing on decades of experience helping young children cope in the midst of conflict, the agency will also establish safe play areas to help children regain a sense of normalcy, while providing educational and play materials.
Save the Children has been working in Lebanon for more than 50 years. In addition to this emergency response, the agency has a team of Lebanese and international emergency management experts on the ground assessing other immediate and medium-term needs.
In Israel, Save the Children's program partner in Nazareth — Al Tufala, is currently:
- Providing emotional support programs to children who have witnessed violence and are exposed to great risk;
- Creating and distributing household activity kits for children and their families.
Meanwhile, the armed conflict in Gaza has created conditions of extreme hardship for children, who are not only exposed to violence and related psychological distress, but who are also affected by the decline in the availability of health care, nutritious food and clean water.
With its program partners in Gaza, Save the Children has already distributed 450 household boxes in Al-Shoka (southern Gaza), benefiting approximately 14,000 individuals (7,500 of whom are children). Boxes include:
- High-protein foods including meat, tuna, beans and cheese;
- Household hygiene supplies (soap, detergent, shampoo, candles);
- Emotional-support activities and education materials, to help families cope with trauma;
- Coloring books, crayons and small toys so children who are confined indoors may play safely.
In addition, the two organizations have conducted assessments of damage to a youth center and playground, as well the community water system in Beit Hanoun.
Save the Children is preparing its next phase of response work in Gaza, including the distribution of additional household boxes in other vulnerable communities and expansion of emotional-support programming for children.
