Education and Health
Enabling dignity in urban displacement
War in Syria is taking a catastrophic toll on expectant mothers lacking critical obstetric care and children facing rising malnutrition rates and inadequate vaccines. In 2016 alone, there were reportedly 101 attacks on health care facilities in Syria, according to the UN. Health care professionals are fleeing the country for lack of safer underground hospitals. Aid agencies find it increasingly difficult to bring supplies and staff into Syria and to conduct medical evacuations from the country.In areas experiencing intense violence, children need to be kept off of the streets and better protected in underground recreational centers. Many children require psychosocial support to process all that they have seen in this war. Others require affordable fuel and clothing to stay warm.
In Lebanon, many Syrian refugee children lack the funds to pay for the documentation, transportation or supplies needed to access public schools.
RPI and its local implementing partners are working to meet these needs by:
- Providing underground psychosocial support and non-formal education
- Rehabilitating and equipping a key underground maternal and pediatric hospital with the infrastructural capacity to serve an estimated 56,160 patients per year
- Enhancing access to winter clothing, first aid, heating supplies, and other humanitarian items through job training and distribution
Medical Needs and Clothing
690 conflict-affected civilians inside Syria received winter clothing. An underground Syrian hospital has been rehabilitated. 89 refugees in Lebanon accessed previously uncovered medical needs. 85 received relief kits.
Educating Vulnerable Syrians
In Lebanon, 2,265 refugee children received non-formal education and 6,165 Syrians received medical and cultural awareness sessions. In Syria, 190 children and trainers benefited from psychosocial programming.
Strengthening Livelihoods That Give Back
In Syria, 1,123 persons received nursing, alternative heating fuel, and/or winter clothing distributed by 88 women who received skills training. 252 medical professionals and first responders may be trained. 88 refugee teachers in Lebanon received training, 83 of which also received classroom materials.

Syrian children in Douma, Eastern Ghouta participating in an underground psychosocial support project implemented by RPI’s partner Aosus.

The underground Avicenna Women and Children’s Hospital being set up by RPI’s partner SIMRO in Idlib, Syria, will provide safer neonatal care.

RPI’s partner MAPS providing education to Syrian children displaced to Lebanon.
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