Holding on to hope in the shadow of war in Lebanon

Lebanon | 2024 | CERF

Lebanon. For over a year, Nada, a 33-year-old nurse from southern Lebanon, has been displaced, moving across Lebanon with her husband and staying with family, friends and strangers willing to host them.

Recently, after discovering she was pregnant with twins, her husband urged her to cross the border into Syria. Shortly after, longing to return to her home country, she went back to Lebanon. “No one knew where we would be safe,” she recalls.

Life in displacement is one of hardship. Nada’s husband, who previously had steady work, now makes a living as a painter on a daily-wage basis. With twins on the way, Nada is worried about the mounting financial pressures on her family.

Nada and her growing family became part of WFP’s emergency cash assistance programme, which covers both food and non-food items, like thousands of other families of Syrian refugees and Lebanese nationals affected by the cross-border conflict in southern Lebanon.

These efforts were bolstered by a $9 million Underfunded Emergencies allocation from CERF, representing a lifeline for families like Nada’s and helping them ensure access to food and essential items during these challenging times.

Later in the year, in September 2024, as the country experienced its largest escalation of conflict since the 2006 war, CERF fast-tracked an additional $10 million from its Rapid Response window to deliver urgent food assistance to displaced families and support vital logistics operations to strengthen the broader humanitarian response.

This is a testament to CERF’s ability to rapidly enable humanitarian assistance that provides a glimmer of hope to many enduring the hardships of war.

Posted May 2025.

More information on the CERF's work in 2024

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