Medical care for vulnerable populations in Lebanon

Marhaba from Insan’s Medical Team,

As some of you perhaps know already, cholera made a reappearance in Lebanon in October 2022 after nearly 30 years of absence. Initially, the outbreak was confined to the northern districts, but then it rapidly spread to all eight governorates[1]. Luckily, Insan’s beneficiaries in Bekaa camps have so far not encountered cholera. Nevertheless, the medical team continuously raises the patients’ awareness about cholera infection, symptoms, risk factors, prevention & control, water & sanitation, and treatment. The medical team also distributed ORS (oral rehydration salts) to the patients and taught them how to reconstitute and use them when needed.

Other than that, everything in the medical project is continuing more or less as usual. The mobile health unit bus has not been fixed yet unfortunately but that does not stop the medical team from carrying out the visits. People in Lebanon are resilient and full of creativity and thus our medical team has set up a new makeshift clinic in the trunk of Insan’s car. Without a doubt, Insan hopes to get the bus fixed at some point because there is more space and it is more private but for now the patients have accepted and accustomed to the new circumstances. In the past four months the medical team met with 35 new patients in the Bekaa valley and also had follow-up appointments with recurring patients.

Insan’s medical team also referred four beneficiaries that had cataracts in their eyes to the MEDEVAC program implemented by the government of Czech Republic in collaboration with Amel Association International and Rafik Hariri University Hospital and offering free cataract surgeries to vulnerable groups of persons in the countries affected by migration or burdened by a large number of refugees.

Furthermore, the community leaders have been providing great support to Insan’s medical team which has also helped to guarantee that the beneficiaries could feel satisfied with the services Insan is providing.

Thank you for supporting us and the vulnerable communities in Lebanon.

Best regards,

The INSAN-team

[1] https://www.moph.gov.lb/userfiles/images/Prevention/Communicable%20Diseases/Cholera-Surveillance-2022/23-1-2023.pdf

Marhaba from Insan’s Medical Team,

It is with joy that we are sharing with you updates from Insan’s health project. The mobile health unit continues to drive around Lebanon and assist the most vulnerable communities in need of basic healthcare services. In the past four months the mobile unit has visited Tyre in South Lebanon assisting 61 beneficiaries, Bekaa valley near the Syrian border assisting 29 beneficiaries and Sed El Baouchriyeh in Beirut assisting 22 beneficiaries. During the next visits Insan is also planning to reach Sin El Fil which is a densely populated area in Beirut.

Unfortunately, the unstable situation in the country continues to pose challenges on the project implementation. Additionally, a sudden obstacle was put in our way when the mobile health unit bus broke down during one visit. This put the visits to a halt for a few weeks, and because the repairs are expensive, Insan hasn’t been able to fix the bus yet. However, in order to continue with the visits Insan has resorted to using a van as an alternative for now.

Shortage of needed medications in Insan’s medical stock also continue to pose challenges. When planning the project, Insan was hoping to receive donations from the pharmaceutical companies in Lebanon. However, the economic hardships are affecting everyone in the country and thus not many medications have been received so far. Yet, to our great surprise, Insan was recently approached by an individual donor who is willing to send some medications to Insan from abroad. Hopefully the shipment will be sent out soon and will arrive to Lebanon and to Insan without any long delays or issues at customs.

As already mentioned in the previous report, Insan is working on launching a new campaign on Live Love Lebanon and on Just Help platforms in order to raise awareness about its work and about the situation of the most vulnerable communities in Lebanon among more and more people. Insan is currently working on filming a video clip from the mobile unit visits that could be then shared on GlobalGiving as well as on the other two platforms.

As always, we would like to express our highest gratitude to you for all the help and support you are providing Insan and the most vulnerable communities in Lebanon! We couldn’t do it without you.

Until next time!

Best regards,

The INSAN-team

                                                                                                                                            June 1, 2022

Marhaba from Insan’s Medical Team,

Despite dire economic conditions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the world Insan’s Mobile Unit Team continued to provide services to the most vulnerable populations in Lebanon nationwide.

Insan’s Mobile Unit Team visited vulnerable people in close proximity to their homes and provided services such as testing blood pressure to determine whether it falls in the normal range, patient counselling (such as patients to understand the correct manner to use medications and receive general lifestyle advices based on chronic or acute disease history), administration of medicines, referrals to other service providers such as dispensaries and medical health centers.

In terms of numbers, the total number of beneficiaries reached in the months of February to May 2022 is 75. In Ghazir, total number of beneficiaries was 22; whereas, in Ain El Remmeneh it was 14; in Bekaa, the number recorded was 16 and in Tyre it was 23 as of May 2022. These numbers do not exlude the number of follow up visit to avoid double counting.

As medicine is scarce in Lebanon nowadays due to currency devaluation rendering medications unaffordable to many, Insan is launching a second medical campaign (for medication collection) on two crowdfunding platforms to serve a higher number beneficiaries and to provide unavailable medications to patients in need. In our next report we will soon have more news on this!

At last, we would like to thank each one of you for your efforts for making Insan’s work possible with your efforts tiny and big.

Insan Team

Dear friend,

We hope you are in good health despite of the relentless Covid pandemic!

Today, Insan can proudly tell you that our mobile unit continues to operate as efficiently as it did in 2021. We are reaching more and more families and people of all ages (a total of 208 in the last 3 months) in need of medical and psychological support in 6 areas across Lebanon (Tyre, Bekaa, Sed El Boushrieh, Ghazir, Ein El Remmeneh, and Sin El Fil) and provide them with the support they need. Despite the hard conditions we are facing including the high living and fuel costs, we continue to provide services equally across these regions.

Patient counseling remains to be mobile health unit’s main duty and it includes raising awareness and giving tips for dealing with various diseases. Thus, one of the most important responsibilities of the mobile unit right now is awareness raising on Covid-19 prevention, detection, dismantling conspiracy theories, sharing objective and evidence-based information, stressing on the importance of getting vaccinated and helping the patients to find nearest vaccination centers.

At the same time, we continue to provide medications that help to relieve acute pain. However, the amount of medications used to treat chronic illnesses remains insufficient in our stock due to their high cost and scarcity in pharmacies. Nevertheless, our team is making their utmost best to help all patients and never leave anyone suffering. Whenever we are not able to provide services or medications that a patient might need, we refer him/her to other relevant service providers.

Finally, as before, we continue to offer psychosocial support to people who suffer from mental health issues such as difficulties in dealing with stress, depression, living with grief, etc. We also share positive parenting advise with caregivers (e.g. how to be supportive, how to communicate better, how to give motivation and care) in order to help them achieve better family dynamics and subsequently a better psychological and even physical wellbeing.

Thank you for believing in Insan and supporting our mission. Your support is highly essential for all these people who are trying to survive in this hard situation in Lebanon. We promise you that we will always do our best to support our community and bring you better news and updates every time!

Best regards,

The INSAN-team

Dear friend,

We hope you have been doing well!

As promised in our previous report, the mobile health unit is up and running. We feel very happy about it because this allows us to reach out to more people in need. At the same time, we continue to provide the same services at Insan’s centers as well.

We are currently covering 6 different locations in Lebanon: Tyre, Bekaa, Sed el Boushrieh, Ghazir, Ein El Rmenneh and Sin El Fil. Due to severe fuel shortages in the country, both us and the beneficiaries have been facing some logistical difficulties but the situation has slightly improved by now and we have managed to assist 193 people with medical or psychosocial support needs since the start of the project.

The project’s main activity is patient counselling which includes tips and guidance on how to decrease pain, how to maintain normal blood pressure (e.g. by lowering caffeine and sodium intake) etc. We also conduct blood pressure and blood sugar screenings and provide medications for acute problems such as toothache, back pain and headache among others whenever possible. Insan’s psychologist accompanies the medical team everywhere and provides psychological counselling sessions to those who are in need.

Unfortunately, we are lacking medications for chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes and heart problems because of their unavailability in the local pharmacies. Thus, we are closely monitoring the information issued by the Ministry of Health and conducting service mapping to refer beneficiaries, in need of medications and services that we don’t have, to other dispensaries and organisations in the nearby area.

Thank you for supporting us and the vulnerable communities in Lebanon. It means a lot to us and we hope to bring you more good news in our next report!

Best regards,

The INSAN-team