The Phoenix project (Protection Health Opportunities and Education Inclusion for host and Syrian communities in Lebanon) promotes an integrated and multisectoral intervention in order to improve the quality and accessibility of the social and health care services offered by 7 SDCs (social development centers of the MOSA), the quality of the school facilities and the overall educational offer of 3 public schools. The decision to develop a project that concerns the sectors of health, protection and education stems from the observation of the structural weakness of thereof, further undermined by the Syrian crisis. The health sector, in fact, is subject to a growing privatization which makes medical visits and drugs for the Lebanese themselves not affordable and the constant and massive influx of refugees has increased the number of those not entitled to primary care, creating a competition between host and refugee communities to access services. The school system has also suffered repercussions due to the Syrian crisis: the increase in the refugee population has required more school structures and has put the existing ones under extreme pressure, from an infrastructural and didactic point of view, with consequent impact on the quality of the primary public educational offer, lower than the regional average even before the crisis.
In this framework The PHOENIX project aims to improve the capacity of institutional actors to provide adequate socio-health care and inclusive and quality education to the most vulnerable and refugee Lebanese population in the target areas. With regards to the health sector, the project intends to guarantee the continuous presence of competent medical personnel, the availability of medicines, access to basic/targeted medical examinations and the creation of community information on specific health issues in the 7 SDCs target.
Concerning the protection sector, the project aims to strengthen social welfare services and their ability to identify/offer psycho-social support, address vulnerable and in need of protection cases, with particular reference to Syrian refugees and people with disabilities.
Finally, the project also focuses on the field of education by improving the quality of the school facilities and teaching spaces of the 3 Lebanese public schools in El Swairi, Eiha and Jezzine in order to promote more inclusive and accessible education and health also for children with psycho-physical disabilities.
The total budget of the project is 907,816.70 Euros and is financed for an amount of 897,816.70 Euros by AICS (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation). In the realization of this proposal, ICU, in addition to constant coordination with the various agencies of the United Nations (UNHCR and UNICEF) on site and participation in the various working groups, has developed a partnership with international and local NGOs experienced in the field of disabilities and vulnerabilities.
