After her husband passed away in Syria, Sheikha became solely responsible for the protection and safety of her children. She fled the war in Syria, which injured her eldest son Ali, and after several internal displacements, she sought refuge in Lebanon with her children.
Sheikha had always been a strong, independent woman who worked different housekeeping jobs to provide additional income for her family. When she fled to Lebanon, she initially settled in Beirut with her children. She struggled to secure a living because she did not know the country well and was alone with her young children, trying to establish herself.
“I was frightened and worried about how we would make it. I had never been to Lebanon, and I had just fled a war, and I was alone with very young children”, explained Sheikha.
After registering with UNHCR and having her needs identified, Sheikha and her children began receiving cash assistance to help meet their most basic needs. She was then able to rent a modest place to reside in and enrolled her children in school. Sheikha, unable to pursue her education herself, is adamant about ensuring her children receive the education they need to secure a better future for themselves.
“I want them to have choices in life. Choices to be whoever they’d like and pursue any careers they’d like. I want them to have prosperous lives, and I know education is the only way to achieve that”, Sheikha said.
While her children are at school, Sheikha tries to earn a living by offering cleaning services to neighbors around her. She is also a talented cook, and customers commission her to prepare local dishes in her home, such as stuffed grapeleaves, kibbeh, tabbouleh, and yogurt-based traditional dishes. She utilizes her skills to best support her family.
However, as Lebanon started to grapple with a compounded socio-economic crisis, the lives of many Lebanese and refugee families changed. Sheikha and her children were also heavily impacted and unable to afford the expense of living in Beirut, they moved to the Bekaa. With the sharp depreciation of the local currency, price spikes, and high food inflation, the situation of Syrian refugees continues to worsen, with nine out of ten refugee households living in extreme poverty and struggling to afford essential goods and services that ensure basic living standards.
Like most Syrian families, Sheikha has to borrow money to survive, reduce health expenses, and make other difficult decisions to keep her children fed and safe. Sheikha particularly struggles because she cannot leave her children home alone and must balance keeping them safe with finding opportunities to earn an income. Sheikha and her eldest son suffer from health conditions and cannot always afford medication. Furthermore, her landlord increased her rent due to the currency devaluation, which impacted her spending ability.
In this context, UNHCR’s multi-purpose cash assistance programme is a lifeline for refugees in Lebanon, helping families meet their basic needs such as rent, food, and medicine and enabling them to contribute to the local economy by purchasing directly from local markets and shops. The monthly cash assistance also gives refugees the dignity of choice in meeting their needs.
“Without the assistance, my children’s safety and well-being would be at risk,” Sheikha said.
She primarily spends the assistance she receives on rent and other food essentials. Her children, Rahaf, Ali, and Mohamad, are currently enrolled in informal education sessions. She hopes to enroll them in a formal school like before once she can afford it again. Her youngest, Mohamad, is particularly enjoying his English classes. He teaches his mom new English vocabulary and loves a song about snow.
Despite all the challenges, Sheikha persists. In 2022, she completed 60 hours of cooking training and obtained a certification from a local non-governmental organization. With her children, Sheikha dreams of opening her own little restaurant one day. She would like to call it “The Three Children,” where she would serve traditional Syrian dishes and run her own business independently.
The generous support of the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) to the cash assistance programme enabled UNHCR to assist around 17,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugee households in Lebanon for two months in 2022. QFFD’s renewed and continued commitment to helping refugees is critical at a time of ever-growing needs and essential to refugee families, like Sheikha’s, as it enables them to live in safety and dignity.
One thing Sheikha keeps teaching her children is never to lose hope. She works hard to provide for her family and does everything she can to ensure they keep dreaming of a brighter future.
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