Middle East conflict: What is happening now?
After a significant escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, the search for peace in the Middle East is more urgent than ever since the 7 October attack on Israel a year ago.
Coronavirus has thrown every aspect of our day-to-day lives into chaos.
Each and every one of us has felt the impact of this terrible disease. It’s taken friends and loved ones from us. It’s left us feeling vulnerable, afraid and alone.
Imagine dealing with the risk of coronavirus from inside a refugee camp. There’s no chance of social distancing, not enough clean water to wash your hands and no hospital bed ready if you or your loved ones get sick.
Our local experts and volunteers are already working in refugee camps throughout the world. They know that the spread of coronavirus through these overcrowded camps will be devastating, but they are staying to ensure that help reaches those in need before the virus does.
With your support, we’re reaching vulnerable refugees worldwide, including families in Lebanon, Bangladesh and South Sudan.
Together, we can make sure that more of our global family survive this crisis.
One and a half million refugees from Syria live in Lebanon – in crowded, makeshift camps and alongside poor Lebanese communities.
Although a swift lockdown has been largely successful in containing the virus, Lebanon’s economy was already in crisis, with unemployment surging and hospitals struggling to afford medicine or equipment.
The concern for the large refugee population is that social distancing, self-isolation, and frequent handwashing are nearly impossible in the communities where many refugees live. So our network of local experts are providing hygiene kits to vulnerable families to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Few cases have been reported in the camps so far, but many more could be going undetected, with some Syrians fearing deportation if they test positive for coronavirus.
An immediate challenge for homeless families is losing their income due to lockdown restrictions. They are now going hungry, getting further into debt, or both. Yasmin, one of our local experts, fears that “it’s going to get worse… whatever savings people have are lost.”
Your donations are providing life-saving support in the form of food kits, medical assistance, and emergency cash grants, which help families to buy what they need to survive this crisis.
Millions of people fled the violence of the civil war in South Sudan and are living as refugees in neighbouring countries. Camps in Sudan are home to nearly 900,000 of these refugees. Until peace is established in South Sudan, they are unable to return home.
Our outreach workers are working alongside local organisations within nine refugee camps in the White Nile area of Sudan. With your support, they have worked quickly to prevent the spread of coronavirus and save lives.
There are currently no cases of coronavirus reported from the camps.
In the hands of our local experts, your donations are saving lives by:
Installing handwashing stations at health centres and camp entry points
Ensuring enough soap is available at all handwashing stations
Providing 172 PPE kits of heavy duty gloves, gowns and masks for outreach workers
Giving out tools to allow deep cleaning at camps to be carried out safely
Making posters and flyers to give out at the nine camps as part of an awareness campaign about how to prevent coronavirus
Putting up coronavirus billboards with prevention information.
In the last three years, over 700,000 Rohingya refugees have escaped violence in Myanmar by travelling to Bangladesh. In the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps families live in makeshift shelters, in crowded conditions, and need emergency help to survive day to day.
Our local experts and volunteers have been providing emergency food, clean water and health advice to vulnerable families as they arrived at the camps.
With cases of coronavirus now identified in the camps, making sure that people have soap and clean water to wash their hands and work to raise awareness of both coronavirus and ways to prevent it is even more important
This builds on the essential work that you have been supporting since the camp was established.
You are making a real difference to vulnerable families and helping them survive this crisis.
After a significant escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, the search for peace in the Middle East is more urgent than ever since the 7 October attack on Israel a year ago.
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With support from CAFOD, Caritas Bangladesh is providing essential services including water and sanitation, nutrition, shelter, protection and some primary healthcare for pregnant mothers and children.
CAFOD has commented on the famine declared in one of Darfur's largest displacement sites: Zamzam camp near Al Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur, Sudan.
Thanks to generous supporters like you, we were able to respond rapidly to the devastating flooding in Libya caused by Storm Daniel in September 2023.
Afghanistan has been hit by devastating floods that worsen the humanitarian crisis in one of the world's poorest countries.
We have launched an emergency appeal for funding to help the millions of people in Sudan who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict and now face a new threat - hunger.
Although the war in Syria is not making the headlines, it has not ended. It has left 90% of Syrians in poverty and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Your generous contributions to CAFOD's Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal have reached thousands of vulnerable people, helping them to survive and rebuild their lives.
Your donations to our Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal have enabled local partners to respond quickly and reach thousands of people with emergency assistance and the tools to start rebuilding their lives.