BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 3 — 289 newborn Syrian refugees in various parts of Lebanon are facing medical and nutrition problems amid freezing cold in the mountains of Lebanon, local medics said on Monday.
Salima Al Ali, who was displaced from the Bab Amr neighborhood of the Syrian city of Homs to the Shebaa village in south Lebanon, delivered a baby 4 days ago in a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance minutes before reaching one of the Bekaa hospitals, the source said.
She thanked God for delivering a healthy baby boy she named Aed, but explained that the problem she is facing with her husband now is how to take care of the newborn, feed him and provide him with the needed medical attention.
She added “all this will cost money that is not available. I am afraid of the outcomes.”
Mahmoud Hinnawi, a Syrian refugee who fled his home in the Damascus neighborhoods, told Xinhua that his wife delivered their newborn baby girl a week ago and he managed with the help of his relatives to pay half of the expenses of the hospital and the rest was covered by an aid agency.
He said “the problem is after the delivery. We do not have any heating tool in the room where we live and no electricity, The other refugees helped us with the baby clothes but raising the child requires many expenses which I am in no way able to provide. My wife had to deliver through an operation and requires a medical care but in the current circumstances and difficult economical situation, I don’t know what to do.”
A Syrian woman who delivered twins last week said that all the medical expenses in Syria were covered by the state. She explained “everything was covered. We moved from heaven to hell. I thought of abortion due to our difficult situation and the displacement, but my husband rejected the idea. We need almost everything, milk, clothes and medical follow-up.”
She added tearfully “truly Syria was the home of the poor.”
Malek Ghaderm, the social affairs department head at the ” Islamic Care and Development” association, told Xinhua “we are calling on the local aid agencies to help providing the various needs to the families who had newborns, starting with housing to medical care and work, while we are providing these families with their heating needs.”
He added “it is worth mentioning that each family needs 1000 U. S. dollars in heating fuel during the winter season.”
On a related note, Lebanese various security reports pointed that a daily rise in the number of Syrians who are fleeing their war-torn country to Lebanon has been registered in the past few months, which will create a new problem as for the country to provide those refugees with adequate shelters and aid.
The latest United Nations Higher Refugees Council report said that the number of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon has reached the mark of 135,000.
