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Middle East crisis: Nearly impossible mission for volunteers
The United Nations and aid agencies estimate that around 867,000 people have been affected by the hostilities that erupted on 12 July 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah. They include 710,000 (one-fifth of the Lebanese population) who have been uprooted from their homes. Of these, 210,000 have fled to other countries.
Volunteers helping the victims of the conflict are finding it extremely difficult to reach affected villages and towns due to Israel's indiscriminate bombing. According to volunteers, the Israeli army has been shelling their routes, hitting civilians, humanitarian aid workers and volunteers.
Such life-threatening situations can easily dampen spirits and discourage anyone. But volunteers on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border are committed – to the extent of endangering their lives – in providing emergency relief and evacuation support to the displaced and injured. The World Volunteer Web is documenting – through pictures and stories – the invaluable humanitarian assistance provided by these courageous volunteers, most of them local people - and in some cases refugees and victims themselves.
Read about the volunteers’ work in our special coverage of the crisis
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In this issue
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2 August 2006
Cash, beds and haircuts for Lebanon's refugees
Syrians are opening their houses, shops and restaurants to refugees of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Restaurants are giving food to shelters, individuals have turned up with food and mattresses, hairdressers are giving free haircuts and shaves, and more than 7,000 Syrian families have offered to take refugees into their homes.
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1 August 2006
Israelis rally to help displaced
Kibbutz Maabarot, Israel: The wave of refugees in Israel – from the attack by Hezbollah based in Lebanon – has inspired a nationwide outpouring of assistance. Israelis in towns in the central region are offering their homes to shelter those displaced from the north of the country.
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1 August 2006
Red Cross volunteers, vehicles repeatedly targeted in Lebanon
Tyre, Lebanon: Israeli warplanes are attacking the Lebanese Red Cross ambulances repeatedly, volunteers of the medical aid group say. It is an attempt to keep the volunteer rescue workers away from the war victims, they say.
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1 August 2006
A nearly impossible mission for volunteers in Lebanon
Tyre, Lebanon: A volunteer in southern Lebanon tries to keep a promise to a little girl at increasing risk to his life. The 25-year old from the port city of Tyre promised Rayan Finjan that he would bring home the bodies of her father, mother and 15-year-old brother, killed when an Israeli missile hit the minivan they were travelling in.
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31 July 2006
Citizens, NGOs try to keep life going in Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon: Brian Whitaker of the Guardian finds that volunteers – local citizens and staff of NGOs – are taking the initiative to keep a semblance of normal life in the Lebanese capital. Their efforts may seem chaotic but they are highly organized in providing relief.
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31 July 2006
Syrian volunteers provide relief to displaced Lebanese
Homs, Syria: Volunteers in the central Syrian city of Homs are helping the people evacuating from Lebanon to cope with the situation by providing them daily rations of food, medicines and other supplies.
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31 July 2006
Red Cross volunteers carry on relief in Lebanon despite peril
Beirut, Lebanon: More than 5,000 Lebanese Red Cross volunteers and staff, working under increasingly dangerous and life-threatening situations, continue to evacuate the wounded and distribute essential relief and medicines to displaced families.
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31 July 2006
Christian Lebanese shelter Muslim evacuees
Beirut, Lebanon: Fleeing the apocalyptic scene in the south, thousands of Lebanese Shiites have found solace in Beirut's Christian neighbourhoods whose residents raced to accommodate and cater for the shell-shocked evacuees.
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28 July 2006
Volunteers’ rescue work suffers as Israeli air strike destroys ambulances
Tyre, Lebanon: Two ambulances rescuing injured people were destroyed in Israeli air strikes in Tyre in south Lebanon, forcing the Lebanese Red Cross to halt all rescue missions. This has left 100,000 people of Tyre district with no way of reaching hospital other than to take to the roads themselves, under the roar of Israeli war planes.
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27 July 2006
Determined Lebanese stay back to help others
Tyre, Lebanon: Despite warnings to flee from the Israeli military, some residents in the port city of Tyre, 25 kilometres from the border, are stubbornly refusing to go. The local residents and volunteers are determined to stay and do their jobs.
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27 July 2006
Palestinian refugees shelter displaced Lebanese
Ain El-Hilweh, Lebanon: Palestinians living in Lebanon's biggest refugee camp in the southern part of the country have turned from downtrodden refugees to generous hosts as they offer shelter to Lebanese families fleeing Israeli bombardment.
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27 July 2006
Medical volunteers bring relief to Lebanon camps
Tyre, Lebanon: Volunteers and staff of the International Medical Corps are providing essential medical supplies in and around Tyre, supporting a hospital and four Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon.
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26 July 2006
Refugees' care fall into volunteers' hands
Beirut, Lebanon: Unconfirmed numbers of Lebanese have been displaced by the on-going assault between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israeli army. But what is known is that caring for the refugees have largely fallen on volunteers.
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26 July 2006
Please give us a ceasefire, say volunteers
Beirut, Lebanon: With their supplies of food and medicine being quickly consumed, volunteers tending to the thousands of displaced Lebanese welcomed United States' promise of US$30 million in humanitarian aid yesterday. But what they'd really like from the Bush administration is pressure on Israel for a ceasefire.
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18 July 2006
2,400 Red Cross volunteers start rescue, relief work in Lebanon
The Lebanese Red Cross has mobilized 2,400 emergency rescue and first aid volunteers, as well as some 200 ambulances to evacuate and provide emergency relief to people wounded or displaced in the bombings by Israeli army.
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