Refugee children in Lebanon brace for coming winter

(Vatican Radio) Children are among the hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing Syria to neighbouring countries.

There is growing concern that the coming winter months could pose a real threat to the health and well being of those who remain in refugee camps.

Ruba Khoury is the country director for Save the Children in Lebanon where she works with Syrian refugee children who have fled to that country.

She spoke with Vatican Radio’s Ann Schneible about the difficulties which these children are facing in these refugee camps, especially as they approach winter.

Many of the children are at particularly high risk, Khoury explained, with many newborns and prematurely born infants. She also received a report that a child died yesterday in Iraq from the cold.

“We have many children who are at the risk of having health issues due to the cold,” she said. Many of them are “staying in tents that are not prepared for [the] winter, or in unfinished houses and in makeshift apartments that are unfinished: they don’t have windows, and they don’t have doors.”

A significant percentage of refugees fleeing Syria are women and children, she said. “These groups are very vulnerable if we are not there beside them to provide immediate support.”

Listen to Ann Schneible’s full interview with Ruba Khoury, Lebanon’s country director for Save the Children: