How Canadian donors are supporting communities in the Middle East

On October 7, 2023, conflict erupted between the country to the south of Lebanon and Gaza, and is ongoing. World Vision is not currently present in Gaza but responded immediately via teams in the West Bank and Lebanon to reach children and their families affected by the conflict. The response continues to face many challenges, but World Vision is committed to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable children and their families in the West Bank and Lebanon.

World Vision’s response

World Vision began operating in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1975. Since then, our organization has developed one of the most extensive community-based presences among organizations operating in the West Bank, with 80 dedicated staff. In 2023 we worked with over 136,000 individuals, including almost 95,000 children residing in approximately 150 villages across the West Bank. World Vision also operates in a number of countries across the region including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Reaching the most vulnerable in the midst of conflict

Through the collaborative work of the World Vision Partnership* we have reached 326,061 girls, boys, women and men in the West Bank and Lebanon with:

• Assistance to meet basic food, shelter, health, and water, sanitation, and hygiene needs.
• Psychosocial support.
• Safe access to quality learning and educational materials.
• Livelihoods resources.
• Contextually appropriate community-level contingency planning, disaster risk reduction, and protection that empowers local actors.

With donations from the Humanitarian Coalition, we have provided health and child protection services to conflict-affected communities. This coalition brings together leading aid organizations to provide Canadians with a simple and effective way to help during international humanitarian disasters. Working with the World Vision team in the West Bank, we have achieved the following since October 2023:

• 16 safe community spaces and 16 kindergartens in northern and central West Bank are being rehabilitated.
• 43 primary health centres were equipped with medical supplies and equipment to facilitate frontline response at the local level.
• 810 households received a cash distribution to purchase groceries, personal hygiene items, clothing, cooking gas, and items for infants and toddlers such as diapers. This distribution reached 5,725 individuals.
• 75 psychosocial support facilitators were trained in art- and sport-based psychosocial support curricula and will provide critical psychosocial sessions to children and their caregivers.

* World Vision Canada donors contributed 56 per cent and 29.8 per cent of funds raised for programs supporting residents in the West Bank and Lebanon, respectively, between October 2023 and September 2024.

**NOTE: This story is adapted from the original, which appeared in World Vision Canada’s 2024 Annual Report.