12 July 2006, a sudden Israeli aggression displaced within weeks 1.000.000 Lebanese people. Terrorized by the shower of bombs and rockets, populations of South Lebanon and of the Southern suburb of Beirut took shelter in empty schools and other public buildings of the capital. As soon as the first refugees had arrived to these safer areas, NGO-s, influential political parties, and civil society mobilized their personnel and militants and switched their plans of actions to dedicate all their resources into relief efforts targeting the Internally Displaced Population (IDP). At the same time spontaneous relief operations took birth. Those centers had to improvise the logistics of operations since relief was not their core competency. Nevertheless they have been holding the greatest burden of IDPs relief responsibility as late as 3 weeks after the arrival of first refugees. One of the first spontaneous and independent centers was born meters away from the Sanayeh public garden, in the so-called Zico House. It is the Sanayeh Relief Center (SRC) – Samedoon which carried the bulk of the relief operation in 24 refugees' centers.
Before the war, Zico House was a socio-artistic phenomenon in Beirut. It hosts several venues: Beirut Street Festival and other avant-garde art festivals and serves as hostel for artists. It was also the home of diverse NGOs such as Green Line, Lebanese Association for Democracy of Elections, Helem, and Women in IT in addition to the artsy cafe-bar "Samra". With the arrival of the first refugees to the near-by Sanayeh Park, people who used to attend Zico House for this or that reason gathered in its café to discuss the actual situation. Naturally, the initiative of organizing a relief operation came about. The premises of Zico House quickly transformed to providing five directions of relief to IDPs: 1-essential needs provision, 2-hygienic needs provision, 3-medical care, 4-children animation, and 5-psycho-social support. All the work there was planned and carried out by volunteers who were not remunerated. Relief work was supported by NGOs like Physicians Without Borders, Oxfam, Red Cross, ARI and others. The guidance and organization of the work were kindly provided by Professors and members from the Faculty of Health Sciences of the American University of Beirut, who volunteered to promote scientific references of relief work.
We were interested to find out who are these people who decided to join a non-affiliated relief center while they could have joined a multitude of others, belonging to political parties or to religious welfare institutions, which are richer and more organized. We took a random sample of 80 among the 220 who were subscribed the 21th of July or the 7th day of hostilities.

Attached to this Document are Samidoun's Financial Reports:

- Samidoun Beirut Operations covering needs on all areas (food, Hygiene, Medical, Phsycosocial, Sanitation, Community Organization, etc..) to 33 schools including Sanayeh Garden and Theaters. From July 12th till August 18th Download Report

Following the call from the International Organizing Committee of the Cairo Conference, Samidoun wholeheartedly agreed to assist and host an international solidarity conference in Beirut to be held between 24 and 26 November 2006.
Although Samidoun had contacted several parties and organizations to participate in the coordination of the conference, we were informed that another conference had been planned at the beginning of November. Although previous experience with the organizers had been negative, from the perspective of democracy and respecting internal priorities, Samidoun agreed that efforts must be joined.
In spite of the initiative to unify efforts in these difficult circumstances, the new conference was called using the same "discouraging" methods, through lack of coordination and not including Samidoun in coordination meetings and discussions. Therefore we would like to clarify the following:

An assessment targeting the most vulnerable, in the villages with small and medium population which has been attacked during the last war. The detailed assessment contains information regarding the population, schools, community places, extremely vulnerable persons and the needs of the villages communities.

Early psychosocial interventions for the war-affected citizens

Sep 15th:
In collaboration with Al Jana Cultural Centre, "Jabal Al Nawras", a theatrical performance by the Ramallah Cultural Group for Popular Arts was conducted. The play tells the story of a boy faced by some challenges and how he could overcome them with the help and support of his loved ones. Children coming from Beirut Suburb (Baajour and Mar Elias camp) were very excited, sang and interacted enthusiastically with the actors.

Mapping conducted by SAMIDOUN teams from the Tyre hub on 70 selected villages in South Lebanon, mid September 2006.
Available in PDF. Click on attachements to view or download. NEW: Assessment of ELECTRICITY, WATER, COMMUNICATIONS, TRANSPORTATION.
This section is in progress.

ENGLISH VERSION ONLINE - SAMIDOUN's assesment of situation in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, first week of September 2006.

This is a detailed report on relief activities in the town of Srifa up to August 29, 2006.