LEBANON
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Our Role and Approach
Since 2008, MSF has worked continuously in Lebanon, ensuring access to free, quality healthcare for some of the most vulnerable people, including Lebanese people, displaced communities and migrant workers.
In the past years and as a result of the country’s ongoing economic collapse, people’s humanitarian needs have drastically increased, and we have adapted our projects accordingly. While some of our medical responses are adapted to specific needs, most of our medical services are accessible to everyone. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of Lebanese people coming to our medical facilities.
We retain the capacity to respond to various types of medical emergencies and in 2023 we increased our support to respond to the needs resulting from the armed clashes in Ain el Helwe. Our teams have to the needs arising from the armed escalation along the southern Lebanese border that started in October 2023.
Today, our long-term activities include reproductive healthcare, mental healthcare, treatment for non-communicable diseases, and routine vaccinations for children, as well as empowering local NGOs and healthcare initiatives across the country.
In 2023, MSF forged a collaborative partnership with Positive on Glucose (PoG), a local NGO dedicated to supporting individuals living with diabetes. Together with PoG, our teams have prioritised the diverse needs of individuals living with diabetes by engaging in clinic and community-driven efforts to design and deliver holistic healthcare services. Our collaboration is centred around better understanding of diabetes management, not just from a medical perspective but also through the social, economic and psychological challenges people living with diabetes might face.
Today, many people in Lebanon are concerned about whether they can put food on the table or find the medications they need. There is a strong sense of social and communal solidarity in Lebanon, and often this is the only way that people can survive. experienced by the most vulnerable in the country. The growing numbers of medical and paramedical professionals leaving Lebanon in search of better work opportunities and living conditions abroad are an indication of the dire situation that the country is in.
Since 2020, MSF has been providing primary healthcare to migrant workers in our clinic in Beirut. As a result of their working conditions and migration history, this vulnerable community has strong needs for including mental health and psychosocial support. These needs have been exacerbated by the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, making access to the Lebanese healthcare system even more difficult.
To tackle these challenges, our team is offering services such as general medical consultation, mental health consultation, access to social workers and general medicine supply. All of it free-of-charge for the patient. Our medical team is supported by community health educators of various nationalities to help us engage with communities and gain a strong understanding of the various migrant workers’ cultures and health-seeking behaviours provide them with adequate services. Our medical team and social workers also make referrals to a network of external partners to complete the package of care. This covers hospital care, protection, legal and basic needs.
In 2023, we extended our services to two additional locations in Beirut, allowing us to reach more people and to provide them with high-quality healthcare.
Since 2013, MSF has run clinics in the Palestinian camps of Shatila and Burj Al-Barajneh, where vulnerable communities live in a rapidly evolving urban setting, with minimal or inadequate access to social and health services. In these areas, living conditions are harsh, with limited access/availability to clean drinking water , limited electricity, and poor sanitation services and infrastructure.
Our services include reproductive healthcare, routine vaccinations, mental healthcare, health promotion activities and care for patients with non-communicable diseases, with a focus on patients with epilepsy and patients requiring insulin. Our teams also provide home-based medical care in both Shatila and Burj Al-Barajneh for bedridden patients who have limited access to health facilities due to their restricted mobility.
Up until the end of 2023, we also ran a birth centre in Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) where we assisted women with non-complicated deliveries to give birth naturally through a midwife-led model of care. Women with complicated deliveries and maternal emergencies were referred to other hospitals for advanced care. The management of the birth centre has been handed over to RHUH, while antenatal and prenatal services moved to our clinic in Burj Al-Barajneh.
Last year in Wadi Khaled, MSF operated a clinic providing mental healthcare, and sexual and reproductive health services (including antenatal care, postnatal care, and contraceptive services) to the local community and surrounding villages. Our teams also carried out expanded program of vaccination (EPI) to children under 18 years of age. The vaccination program was carried out at the MSF clinic and through outreach activity in the area. In a collaborative effort, our reproductive healthcare services, previously offered at our clinic, became integrated into Makassed Primary Healthcare Centre in July 2023, followed by the integration of all MSF services at the centre by the end of 2023. This collaboration aligns with our strategy to enhance Lebanon’s local healthcare capacity and strengthen the local healthcare system, ensuring sustainable and long-term access to healthcare for the community. As part of this collaboration, technical, logistic support, reinforcement of medical staff capacity and donation of resources are provided to Makassed.
Our teams have also set a community-based surveillance to observe any health-related trends, along with regular visits to local communities to raise awareness on key health topics and promote healthy behaviours.
The living conditions in Tripoli have been deteriorating over time due to limited housing, depleted infrastructure, lack of clean water and sanitation, and inadequate access to social services. The healthcare system in the city is under significant strain, facing numerous challenges. These challenges primarily relate to ensuring that people have access to healthcare services and medication. In June 2022, MSF launched a project to support four primary healthcare facilities in Tripoli to strengthen care for non-communicable diseases and mental health services with a holistic and patient-centred package of care, in line with Ministry of Public Health and World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. Our teams provide technical guidance and capacity-building to clinicians in partner facilities, as well as community activities, subsidisation for non-communicable patients, supporting mental health activities, health promotion activities and support in procuring medications.
In Baalbek-Hermel, northeast of the country, our teams run a clinic in Arsal and another in Hermel. In both clinics, MSF provides primary healthcare services to patients with non-communicable diseases (such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy), sexual and reproductive health services for women, paediatric medical consultations, and mental health services to vulnerable communities in surrounding areas. Additionally, MSF offers access to secondary healthcare to partner hospitals (deliveries, newborn, paediatric care and complications of chronic disease care).
In both areas, our teams have set up community-based surveillance to observe any health-related trends, along with regular visits to local communities to raise awareness of key health topics and promote healthy behaviours.
Since 2018, MSF had been running a hospital in Bar Elias providing secondary healthcare mainly for vulnerable population groups who have limited access to hospital-level care in central Bekaa.Our team also provided nurse-led wound care for patients with chronic wounds, mental health support and health promotion activities, both within the hospital and in the community.
Our teams in Bar Elias also provided thalassemia treatment for children and medical support to the emergency rooms of two governmental hospitals in Mashghara and Kherbet Qanafar.
In June 2023, we concluded our activities at Bar Elias Hospital, as per the agreement with the Ministry of Public Health.
In August 2023, following clashes in the Ain el Helwe refugee camp, MSF swiftly responded by providing medical and non-medical assistance the camp residents. Our teams , drinking water to displaced families and supplied local health facilities and community health workers with nearly a ton of As tensions eased, our nurses, doctors, and paramedics in mobile clinics provided free medical care, including wound care, treatment for non-communicable diseases, and mental health services.
Our teams provided 398 medical consultations, and in support to the displaced camp residents, out teams distributed 281 hygiene kits, 507 blankets, 910 Mattresses, 30 Kitchen kits and 20,250 litres of drinking Water.
MSF deployed mobile medical teams to support two primary healthcare centres located in Our response ensures continuous access to healthcare for displaced individuals. Our mobile team also started responding to medical needs in one of the collective shelters in Zahrani, Saida, one of the areas with the highest numbers of displaced people. The aim of the mobile team is to ensure continuous access to healthcare for those who have chronic diseases and need to follow up with their treatment or consultations and have been displaced. The team also provides psychological first aid and refer those who need further mental health support to primary healthcare centres or other organisations for follow up.
We also imported 10 tonnes of additional supplies and pre-positioned medical supplies and items in hospitals and facilities.