SRK ambassador in crisis region Sarah van Berkel: “People are desperate”

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The report, prepared in July together with SRK’s ambassador to Lebanon, Sarah van Berkel, shows the situation in the country at that time.

“I often had problems with my wife because of the water,” Charles Merhi tells Sarah van Berkel. The two of them are picking tomatoes in their garden in Alma, northern Lebanon. She looks at him with questioning eyes. “We had to buy water from dealers. He brought it with a tanker truck in exchange for expensive money. Sometimes it did not come because we did not have water,” says the 46-year-old unemployed father of three children. «Thanks to the Red Cross, we now always have enough healthy water. For much less money. We are getting better thanks to you. “I have no problems with my wife anymore,” he said.

The sun is burning, Sarah van Berkel wipes the sweat from her forehead. The former top skater has served as an ambassador for the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) for nine years. In July, the 39-year-old traveled to Lebanon to get an on-the-ground impression of projects funded by SRK and implemented by the local Red Cross. He is accompanied by Jyri Rantanen. The 59-year-old Finn has been coordinating Red Cross aid in Lebanon on behalf of SRK for eight years.

Country on the ground

The situation in the small Middle Eastern country is catastrophic, the economic and political crisis is paralyzing everything. 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line; people can no longer afford increasingly expensive basic foods. The state is in ruins: there are no longer any pensions, but there are power outages every few hours. Since 2019, it is no longer possible to withdraw your assets. The bank prints money only for daily needs; 400 francs per month. The public healthcare system has collapsed: since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019, almost half of doctors have emigrated because they can no longer earn anything. Countless people are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following the devastating explosion in 2020, and the ruins at the port still remain. At least 207 people died and more than 6,500 were injured in the disaster.

Morale across the country has collapsed. And Sarah van Berkel hears the same sentences everywhere: “We don’t live, we survive. “Given the large number of refugees flocking to our country, there is no end in sight to the crisis.” The SRK ambassador says: “People are helpless, suffering in silence.”

For example, in Alma. From April to December it does not rain here, the air warms up to 50 degrees. A few months ago, Lebanese Red Cross workers installed a large solar power system with donations from Switzerland. This provides electricity to a pump that moves groundwater to the surface and into public water tanks. There is a water tank on the roof of every house in the village. 2,000 households, i.e. 10,000 people, benefit from the project. The Red Cross also installed the system in five other villages in the area. Jyri Rantanen explains: “Other towns are looking forward to it. It is our turn.”

The next day, Sarah van Berkel visited the Red Cross Hospital in Jal El Dib, near the capital Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross operates 35 additional public health centers and new mobile medical units across the country. “This way we provide access to medical care for 200,000 people,” says Rosy Abi Abdallah from Switzerland. The 31-year-old doctor is the medical director of all Red Cross hospitals in his home country. The Lebanese Red Cross operates the only ambulance service and only blood donation center in the country; These services are also free. “At the Red Cross, we all do our job with passion. We love our country. Despite everything.”

“We trust you”

Long queues formed in front of the clinic. Doctor Abi Abdullah welcomes the next patient. Sanaa Mousallem, 56, has been treated for a heart rhythm disorder for two years and receives the necessary medications here for a very small fee. “I couldn’t pay for all this in one of the few public hospitals. “I’m resting here, I’m in safe hands here,” says the mother of three girls.

Sarah van Berkel asks how her family is doing. Sanaa Mousallem takes a deep breath. She takes care of her husband, Maroun, with great devotion in her small apartment at home. The 66-year-old man fell down a ladder while picking olives and has been paralyzed and almost immobile ever since. A Red Cross aide visits him regularly. “If it wasn’t for the Red Cross, I wouldn’t be alive anymore,” his wife says, holding the doctor’s hand. “You are the only institution that we Lebanese still trust. Who does not take but gives. I and many people across the country are so happy and grateful that you exist.

Source : Blick