Church programme for Syrian children in Lebanon to continue
April 11, 2014 - A Catholic Church programme for Syrian children in Lebanon has been
extended, the Vatican said on Friday. A 3-month healthcare mission for Syrian refugee
children begun last December in the Bekaa valley has been extended until end of May.
The initiative involves the Vatican’s Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’, Caritas Lebanon
and Rome’s Bambino Gesu childrens’ hospital, with support from the Raoul Folleareau
foundation. The Bekaa valley bordering Syria in the east, with a largely Muslim
population, is one of the most unstable regions of Lebanon and lacks facilities and
personnel to treat Syrian children in overcrowded centres. The Church’s initiative
consists of a mobile medical unit with a doctor and a nurse that goes about in various
refugee centres treating children. Some 2000 Syrian refugee children have been treated
by the unit until end of March. They commonly suffer from respiratory and lung infections,
psychological trauma, various types of skin diseases and lice, besides malnutrition.