The war in Lebanon is having a detrimental effect on children's mental health, as schools and other safe spaces are destroyed amid a “ceasefire on paper”, the head of Save the Children US says.
In an interview with The National, Janti Soeripto said the trauma of displacement – family members lost, friends killed and homes destroyed – is something “no child should ever have to live through”.
“There is a ceasefire on paper; there's definitely not a ceasefire in practice,” she said. “The daily reality for families in Lebanon, particularly in the south, is that bombings happen, shelling happens, homes and hospitals and schools are continuously still hit.”
Ms Soeripto recently returned from a visit to Lebanon, where she witnessed how children and families were trying to cope with the fallout from the war.
She highlighted that about 55 villages in the south were under Israeli control, and about 40,000 homes there have been destroyed. Of the more than 4,000 people who have been killed since March, about 250 children have died, she said, and about 300,000 people remain displaced.
“Even if they felt safe, there's nothing to go back to,” Ms Soeripto said of the displaced. “They've lost their homes, their income, their jobs, or sometimes their businesses.”
Many families have run through their life savings and with no jobs in the places they've been displaced to, they must depend on charity and loans to get by. With skyrocketing inflation that was a problem even before the war, access to food, fuel and other necessities is increasingly scarce.
Amid this uncertainty, children's mental health is suffering.
“You see kids who are drawing, and essentially the question is, draw what you feel what you feel like right now,” Ms Soeripto said. “You see drawings of planes with bombs dropping on their homes, or they're all drawn in black and white – so it's very viscerally clear that children are suffering from the trauma that they have seen and heard.”
She explained that younger children feel the lack of being able to play or interact with others, while teenagers feel like they are being left behind.
“I spoke to some of these teenagers. They feel they're missing out, that their life is passing them by,” Ms Soeripto said.
A major issue is the lack of schooling, which provides not only education but a place for children to gather and play with their peers. More than 340 schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged, and those that have not been completely levelled have become places of refuge for the displaced.
“There is the knock-on effect that those schools can't be reopened for education, so kids are missing out on education, and of course these families are stuck with nowhere to go,” Ms Soeripto said.
At least 100,000 children are at risk of missing the next school, according to Save the Children, putting them at "a huge risk" of missing out on the social and emotional learning provided by school environments.
“We always hear this in any conflict or even sudden onset disasters. When we ask children what they want the most, they say, 'to go back to school'.”
Despite the urgent needs of families in Lebanon, Ms Soeripto said funding has not reached the necessary levels.
“The humanitarian appeal for Lebanon, what the UN numbers said is what would be required, it's 20 per cent funded,” she said. “Sadly, we're seeing record numbers of people in need, but we're still seeing hesitation with funders, particularly when it comes to these conflict-affected areas like Lebanon.”
Not only are numerous global crises splitting attention and causing a pivot to domestic concerns, Ms Soeripto said some have adopted a wait-and-see approach to conflicts like Lebanon, Gaza and Ukraine, as peace-building seems far off.
“It's hard to predict what's going to happen. A lot of political will is needed, but making sure a child doesn't starve to death, or doesn't die from malaria, or is treated for pneumonia – those things we know how to do,” she said.
Ms Soeripto will be in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, where she will appeal to member states to give generously to help children in conflict zones.
“More children are in need than ever, suffering mostly from issues that are man-made and that we know how to solve,” she said. “So let's stand shoulder to shoulder to address these things.”
