Helping amputees in the Palestinian Camps in Lebanon

There are currently twelve refugee camps in Lebanon housing over 400,000 Palestinian refugees, many of whom have been born and bred in these camps. They are possibly even more neglected than the people in the camps in Palestine; they have a different set of problems. There are 78 professions that Palestinians are not allowed to work in and there are far too few secondary schools for the number of students. It is hard for them to see a good future, to be independent and to feel like they have something to contribute. These stresses breed all kinds of problems - we were lost as to where to start to help. One of our trustees, Lubna Samara, visited a few of the camps in April 2004 and while there she noticed several amputees without artificial limbs. When we made inquiries we found that although some aid was available, it wasn't filtering through in a significant way. Our long term aim is to set up centralised clinics that specialise for the amputees - a one stop shop that will help them with funding, medical treatments, physiotherapy, rehabilitation as well as provide the limbs. We have joined forces with Response International (RI) (www.hmdresponse.org.uk) who have produced a thorough assessment for us to submit to funding bodies for grants to fund the project. We are very pleased to report that the project has received $200,000 from DFID (Foreign Office) to proceed with enhancing the clinics.