Christians in Lebanon are continuing to struggle in the aftermath of the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which saw an armed incursion by Israel into the south of the country.
A ceasefire was agreed over six months ago and since then many local families in the south have left for the capital of Beirut, seeking better economic opportunities.
Sister Gerard Merhej, Director of the Antonine Sisters’ School in Debel, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that since the conflict began the local population appears to have halved, with only 200 children now attending her school, down from a pre-war figure of 400.
She said that most of those who left were the more educated in society. Among those that remain many are impoverished because they work in agriculture but many of the fields have been destroyed by the war.
Another Catholic Sister, Maya El Beaino of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, said she chose to remain in the Ain Ebel municipality so that she could continue providing vital support to those in need.
“Our mission is to go to the peripheries and accompany those in need," she said.
Her congregation runs a school, which switched to online classes during the conflict.
“When there was an airstrike near the home of one of the pupils, all of them could hear [the explosions]," she said.
She added that shared adversity bought those in the school together, “[They] had a sense that they were all in it together, even though they were physically apart."
Sister El Beaino also noted that many people have left the region as a result of the war: “Only the elderly stayed. They would rather die at home than leave.”
ACN is providing medicine and other aid supplies to people who are desperately in need in the area.
