ACDI/VOCA Provides Relief to Conflict-Affected Rural Herders in Lebanon

The rural inhabitants of Al-Q’aa, Lebanon survive primarily through agricultural or herder livelihoods, and most live in poverty. Al-Q’aa, which lies in a remote northeastern region of the Beqa’a Valley, near the Lebanese-Syrian border, was affected by the Israeli bombing campaigns during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The tense situation—as well as the physical damage caused as a result of the war—severely damaged milk and live animal sales during the peak season, a time when herders make the bulk of their yearly income to feed their families and their flocks during the winter months in preparation for the following season.

The war worsened the already difficult living conditions for the people of Al-Qa’a and recognizing a need, ACDI/VOCA incorporated an animal feed ration component as part of its Rapid Animal Feeding Aid program (RAAFA or “compassion” in Arabic), funded by the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). Thus far, the program has reached 253 remote, conflict-affected small ruminant herders in eastern and western Beqa’a with 487 tons of high protein/high calorie animal feed rations for 73,678 heads of sheep and goats, in addition to providing 200 waterproof tarps, 1,399 warm blankets and 400 hygiene kits for their households.

Mohamad Flity—or Abou Hassan as people call him in Al-Qa’a—is a program beneficiary and a father of five. He shares a home with his wife, their children and his mother and father, who all tend to the family flock of 250 sheep and goats while the children go to school. “Being unable to milk the sheep and goats during the war, I lost my income for the whole year. Without assistance, I would have had to either sell more of my herds to cover up for the cost of feeding or take loans out with high interest rates that God only knows how I would have been able to pay back,” he said.

During the war, he had to sell 70 sheep at sharply reduced prices to sustain the lives of the other animals. Without any type of assistance he would have been forced to take even harsher measures. In order to save money to sustain his flocks, he had even planned to cancel the school bus service that carried his children—all under 11 years old—the 5 km to and from school every day. During the harsh winter months of his mountainous region, where temperatures often drop to below zero, this would impose a substantial risk to the children’s health and could lead to further hardship. RAAFA’s animal feed distribution program not only saved the family’s flock and ensured food and economic security for the coming months, but it also spared Abou Hassan’s children from enduring a difficult daily journey.