“I want to name her Joury [rose], after my favorite flower. Hopefully, her days will be rosier than mine.” This is what Rania* told the doctor when she delivered her third daughter and was asked to name her. Rania is a 33-year-old displaced Syrian residing in a small town in Southern Lebanon. She has three …
Alaa is a 14-year-old Syrian refugee who lives in a small village in the Bekaa Valley. When Alaa’s family came to Lebanon eight years ago, she was only six years old. Before fleeing the war, Alaa stopped going to school for a full year. Like so many other children, it wasn’t safe for her to …
Syria’s relentless civil war enters its ninth year this month, with fighting beginning to wane in what has become this century’s bloodiest, most brutal conflict. But as the violence ebbs, the humanitarian crisis left in its wake will only grow in the period ahead. The fighting, which has claimed an estimated 500,000 lives, has caused …
Note: The names of the people in this story have been changed for their protection. Razan, a 26-year-old married woman and a mother of three, was experiencing symptoms of depression such as emotional distress and isolation. She would often find herself crying for no reason, was having trouble sleeping and had been isolating herself from …
Leila*, now a 32-year-old volunteer with International Medical Corps in Lebanon, was 14 years old when her parents divorced. Her mother—who married at age 16—could no longer take her husband’s physical and verbal abuse, and left with the couple’s only son, leaving her two daughters behind. As soon as her mother left, Leila’s father started …
Listening to the voice of someone who has been silenced, marginalized and even physically abused for years is a delicate task, but it’s one that International Medical Corps is determined to embrace as we look to help and heal those who have suffered from gender-based violence (GBV). GBV is defined as an action toward someone …
With rates of gender-based violence (GBV) still staggeringly high in every nation across the globe, it’s easy to feel vulnerable as a woman. A violent attack can come from anywhere at any time; from someone you know intimately or someone you’ve never met. In a country like Lebanon, fragile political dynamics and a massive refugee …
In response to a worldwide initiative to prevent and control mental health illnesses, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the International Medical Corps, launched the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in May 2014 with the goal of reforming and improving mental health care in Lebanon.
Samia* and Khaled* married 13 years ago. They were both 23. Samia remembers their first five years of marriage fondly. The couple lived together in Burj Al Barajneh Palestinian camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs and soon had three children, Tareq*, Hani*, and Sara*. Then cracks in their relationship started to emerge. Khaled rarely worked, which …
In an effort to keep public attention on the ongoing needs of millions of Syrian refugees, International Medical Corps and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation are launching The Things We Carry, a campaign featuring the children, men and women who have fled six years of war in their country – and what they carried with …