“We are in an emergency, we see the smoke from the explosions from the windows of our office in Beirut and we feel everything shaking from the shelling. At night it is difficult to sleep, but in the morning all my colleagues from AVSI are here to help. From the very first day of the escalation, no one has backed down, we are driven by a sense of unity, a desire to do well, which keeps us alive.” Speaking is Francesca Lazzari, head of the AVSI Foundation in Lebanon.

September 23, she says, was a turning point for the start of the massive Israeli war operation, but the conflict never left the south of Lebanon. There had already been a war in 2006, which never formally ended, as border clashes between Israelis and Hezbollah militiamen continued. The situation had precipitated a year ago with the Hamas attack, the kidnapping of Israeli hostages and the all-out war launched on Gaza. “Lebanese civilians have also been affected, especially in the south where clashes between Israeli forces and Shiite militias take place. These are the areas where AVSI has several projects and that is also why we know a lot of the displaced people who have been spilling into the north in recent days. In these hours we are active to help more than 10 thousand displaced people with emergency kits (food, blankets, water, medicine), but it is a drop in the ocean because according to the Lebanese government there are at least 1.2 million refugees.”

Some among them, Francesca recounts, have been taken in the 800 or so shelters prepared by the Lebanese executive and the entities on the ground: churches, schools, universities. Others have rented houses; others are being hosted by relatives or friends. “However, so many are on the streets. There is a huge need because we are talking about the elderly, families, children without hot water, mattresses, blankets. We also offer them psychological support; we have activated emergency phone lines because losing your home, your job, your loved ones in a matter of hours is something unimaginable.”

Building on its experience in the country (AVSi has been present in Lebanon since 1996 with social, educational, labor supply and agribusiness projects), the NGO is already looking ahead to the coming months.

“There are no signs that this is going to end soon; we have to be ready. The issue we are most concerned about is education. Currently, all Lebanese schools are closed, and in the south there are institutions that have opened only intermittently over the past five years due to clashes between Hezbollah and Israel, Covid, the economic crisis, and the absence of electricity. This new phase of the conflict means that an already severely compromised generation risks losing another year of school. We want to be at their side helping them in their educational and human journey.” To support contingent efforts and to stand by the population, AVSI has launched a fundraising campaign called Hope4Lebanon.

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“The people we are rescuing are frustrated, scared, struggling to talk about what is happening. But they have a right to dignity and not to be left alone. Some of my Lebanese colleagues have lost everything these days. Some have lost their homes, others have lost family members who have been killed. But no one is missing, everyone is on the front lines to help. It is the only response we can give to this violence.”