Refugee Crisis in Lebanon Takes Extra Toll on Women
The plight of women in Lebanese refugee camps is worsening as refugees continue to flee the war in Syria.
Rasha never seems to rest. The energetic, smart young Palestinian refugee starts each day in her one-room temporary shelter figuring out how she will find food for her family, earn some money to pay for it and keep her children from spending their day crying and longing for their home back in Syria. She also has to contend with her bad-tempered husband, still frustrated and humiliated over not being able to provide for his family.
Rasha and her family arrived in Lebanon half a year ago and headed for the already overcrowded Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. Rasha now admits they might never have come if they had known what awaited them: a maze of narrow, dirty alleyways under a tangle of electric wires with water dripping down the crumbling walls. Rasha has to pay $300 a month for a room with no running water and often no electricity, either.
