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.