Waiting, and rolling... waiting and rolling. We are operating on what everyone here refers to with a shrug and a laugh as Lebanese Time, so in between shoots there is a lot of coffee drinking, hummus eating and watching of Egyptian spy movies in Arabic. This is the halfway point for me on this trip and the more I learn, the more I need to know - an old adage but a true one. As a friend told me the other day, he could spend an hour laying out his personal argument regarding Lebanon's relationship with Syria, then another hour laying out out the complete opposite argument, which would also be true.
One thing is absolutely clear: the aid being provided, and the education in the camps is abysmally low. An article in yesterday's Daily Star reports that nearly nine out of ten Palestinian refugees believe that services provided by the UN are insufficient. This comes as no surprise since this is the same thing I've been hearing and seeing since we arrived: the education system is failing students, and access to health care is a major problem. Even with the efforts of organizations such as the Ghassan Kanafani Foundation that provides innovative creative development for kindergarten students, it seems that the UNRWA schools that follow are so insufficient that there are massive shortfalls in access to proper education for Palestinians.
Within this reality and the many layers of complex truths that make up the Lebanese political and social fabric, we have been meeting and filming some extraordinary people. Yesterday we visited PARD, and spoke to the project manager for the clinic outside of Shatila camp. They provide services to approximately 50 patients every day and treat everything from chronic diseases to STDs. The woman I was speaking with told me that in the 16 years she has been doing this work, she never forgets a face. This comes in handy when some detective work is needed to try to guess what health issue a devout woman is facing, who cannot say the ailment or symptoms outright. Many women (and men, more recently) are unaware that the symptoms they are experiencing are the result of unfaithful partners.
PARD clinics in Southern Lebanon must first run workshop topics by the local Sheik to get his approval. Information related to reproductive health is a big problem, especially in the Gatherings - informal settlements on the outskirts of the camps. One midwife rotates through six Gatherings in her five working days, delivering babies and providing information.
A few days ago we filmed an event for Yawm al-Ared, Palestinian Land Day. For the first time, the celebrations were outdoors on the Corniche, which is the seafront boulevard that borders the Mediterranean and downtown Beirut. Traditional Palestinian Dabke dancing took place throughout the afternoon and performances on the main stage went on into the night. The setting was beautiful and the crowd was jubilant. I was squeezed between a massive throng of people with my wireless shotgun mic encased in its fuzzy windscreen to muffle the sea breeze from the microphone, trying not to block anyone's view or bash anyone in the head with this strange looking animal. Young kids would reach out instinctively to pet the fur casing, looking up at me questioningly when they felt the insides of the microphone instead of a pet.
A big breakthrough was finally receiving our army permissions this morning to film in the refugee camps to the south and the north, which are much more difficult to get into than the camps in Beirut. In the next few days we will go north to Nahr el-Bared, or what is left of it after the 2007 clashes in the camp; and south to Ain el-Helweh, where there seems to be the stirrings of similar outbreaks. There is a lot of spin regarding what happens when there is violence in the Palestinian camps, and who is involved. But when violence erupts in one of the camps it results in a massive migration of refugees to another refugee camp, crowding an already overcrowded area and stressing local resources even further.
There is no room to build and the structures in the Beirut camps just keep getting taller and taller, built up by smuggled in bricks, enforced by wire and wood. 30,000 people fled Nahr el-Bared in 2007, mainly to nearby Beddawi. Resources are so stretched, and programs so underfunded, that another forced migration would result in a major humanitarian disaster.
sarah
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The midwives can enlist the help of the sheiks by telling them that women can lose their fertility because of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, often caused by untreated chlamydia, which, in about 75% of women shows no symptoms. This is how female genital cutting was handled in some countries: women's health became an issue once it was pointed out that their ability to successfully continue a pregnancy and give birth could be compromised.
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