How A Women's Center in Lebanon is Re-Humanizing Aid Work

How a Women's Centre in Lebanon is Re-humanizing Aid Work

Albeit still a challenge, it is much easier to imagine a shift towards economies of wellbeing in the relatively politically and socially stable nations of Europe, compared to that of war-torn countries such as Lebanon, where more than half the population are currently in need of humanitarian aid. Hence, the latter is arguably more important. This article will explore an alternative, psychosomatic approach to humanitarian action as a vital cornerstone in building post-conflict societies into wellbeing economies.

Dehumanitarian aid: Why delivery and intention matter

We have all seen the harrowing images of how, rather than saving lives, USAID airdropping insufficient food packages to the starving population of Gaza ended up killing and injuring several civilians. The resemblance between the American-made explosives used to carpet bomb the strip and the inadequate aid bundles parachuted from the skies is impossible to ignore. This cruel measure cannot be further from the roots of humanitarianism, namely “to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity” – acting instead to, as Laura Blythe puts it, “dehumanise and remove dignity from the recipients”.

Within academia, similar critiques echo the lack of humanity prevalent in the increasingly industrialised and politicised approaches to humanitarian aid, which in its often impersonal delivery runs the risk of degrading rather than uplifting those it seeks to ‘help’. Additionally, ‘white saviourism’ (the belief that “white people are here to save, help, teach, and protect their non-white counterparts”) is a largely criticised aspect of humanitarian action, which co-aligns with the paradoxical effects of dependency and disempowerment that inappropriate humanitarian aid reportedly causes within receiving communities.

The most pressing issue within the world of humanitarian aid, however, is arguably the minuscule amount of psycho-somatic/social, and mental health support delivered through humanitarian responses. Although there is a growing awareness of this gap within the field, in practice, the demand beats the supply by miles. For example, during the 2016 UN Syrian Arab Republic Humanitarian Response Plan, therapeutic support represented less than 0.1% of the overall budget. Let’s take a look at why this number is unacceptably low, an initiative aiming to change that, and how this topic ties into wellbeing economies.

A living nightmare: Life as a Syrian refugee in Lebanon

Imagine waking up to the sound of bombs. Every night. For months on end. Imagine trying to soothe your frightened children, assuring them everything will be fine. Even though you fear it won’t. Imagine watching over them as they struggle to fall back asleep, stress hormones flooding their tiny bodies as they tremble their way into the land of dreams. Imagine fighting the urge to follow them there, as your every instinct tells you to keep watch. And spending yet another sleepless night, drowning in anxious thoughts.

Now, add to the equation the stress of being homeless. The grief of having lost family members and friends to war. The angst of living day-by-day without a job or any savings to your name. The bleak future that awaits you as a refugee in a country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world, while simultaneously ravaged by war and undergoing the worst economic crisis globally since the mid-nineteenth century. Where 70% of the population is experiencing multidimensional poverty. And where racial tension is rising towards the ethnicity you were born into.

This is but the tip of the traumatic iceberg experienced by most attendees at Circle of Wellbeing (CoW), a non-profit women-centre in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, which hosts 39% of the nation’s 1,5 million Syrian refugees. An area that is under frequent bombardment by the Israeli army, and where severe women’s rights issues, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child marriage, are prevalent.

With the immensity, urgency, and severity of conditions like this, there is, of course, an enormous need for material assistance – in the form of food, water, shelter, medical products, and physical health care.

And historically, the approach of humanitarian aid has been to provide just this. But stopping there leaves a dysregulated and potentially dependent population, blocked from making any significant changes to their own lives, and that of their community, due both to their internal and external circumstances.

Because trauma, defined as “the emotional reaction of the psyche to mental, physical or cultural violence which leads to the destruction of an individual’s basic ideas about her/himself and the world”, often require external treatment/therapy to be overcome – and if left unaddressed can result in substance abuse, anti-social behavior, and mental health disorders among the survivors of the traumatic event/s. So once the fundamental material needs have been dealt with, for a traumatized community to recover and move forward, their inner landscape of needs must be met, too. On this premise, CoW was formed.

Aid work that empowers: Community, somatic therapy, and knowledge

CoW takes a unique approach to humanitarian aid by focusing on emotional, communal, and spiritual assistance – in contrast to most other NGOs in Beqaa Valley, which help by handing out essential provisions. The center aims to empower women by providing them with community, education around physical and mental health, guidance around pregnancy and motherhood, raising stigmatized topics, and teaching stress management tools in the form of yoga classes and emotional release sessions.

The idea is to help the women help themselves. This form of aid naturally has ripple effects.

One attendee describes using the breathwork techniques she learned at the center to calm herself down enough to care for her four children during an earthquake, and another, who experienced two previous miscarriages due to severe stress, regularly attends sessions at the center to do all she can to care for herself and the baby differently during this pregnancy.

“Stories like this are why we do what we do”, say Thea Munkeby, CoW’s Norwegian founder and CEO. “We can’t prevent earthquakes, we can’t prevent wars – but we can help provide tools to deal with the stress, anxiety, and depression that come as a result.”

Trauma-informed humanitarian aid: A Wellbeing Economy precursor

CoW has so far been the meeting place of hundreds of women, with many describing it as life-changing, as it has allowed them to let go of grief and heal from various traumas. And this facilitation of healing is what makes work like CoW’s an irreplaceable part of building towards wellbeing economies.

Because as cultural activist, Stephen Jenkinson writes, “when you’re trying to survive, you turn malady into a coping strategy, and loss into culture”. In other words, if left unaddressed, trauma perpetuates trauma. Providing psychosomatic/social support alongside the material needs of communities affected by disaster/conflicts is hence an essential progression on the path towards ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible’. One that the team at CoW and the women attendees tiredfully yet determinately work towards day-by-day despite – and because of – their challenging circumstances.

To find out more about CoW and how to support the initiative, click here.