A coalition of Canadian charities sounded the alarm over a lack of donations to help with the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, as Foreign Minister Mélanie Jolie joined her colleagues at a summit to try to help the country cope with damage caused by Israeli airstrikes.
France hosted dozens of countries at the summit on Thursday, which it said had collected pledges worth $1 billion for Lebanon. A fifth of this amount is allocated to the country’s army, while the rest is aimed at humanitarian aid.
Canada has already allocated just under $50 million in humanitarian aid to Lebanon this year, but Canadian charities say they have fallen short of the target set by Ottawa to match donations.
The federal government pledged to double every dollar raised by the Humanitarian Coalition until November 3, up to a maximum of $3 million. The funding goes to charities such as Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision to provide things like emergency shelter and medical support.
As of Thursday, the group had raised just $1.825 million of the $3 million Ottawa pledged to raise two weeks ago.
Richard Morgan, the coalition’s executive director, said the global focus on the geopolitics of war, rather than the resulting carnage, may be behind the slow uptake of donations.
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“Honestly, it’s concerning,” Morgan said. “It is, for example, at a much lower pace compared to how Canadians rallied in 2020 after the explosion at the Beirut port.”
It is feared there could be an outbreak of infectious diseases in the cramped shelters that still need to be prepared for the winter. Donations help with everything from reuniting children and parents who have been separated to providing women with menstrual products, Morgan said. A $35 donation feeds a typical family for a week, he said.
“As much as a lot of Canadians have a lot of problems here, I think a lot of us are capable of doing something to help people in their hour of need,” he said.
On the other hand, the ministers met in Paris for a meeting under the title of supporting the people of Lebanon and their sovereignty.
In addition to funding pledges, summit participants discussed the need for Israel and Hezbollah to respect a 2006 UN resolution that called for an end to the fighting, as well as strengthen support for security in the country.
Israel is bombing residential buildings and sites near hospitals, claiming that it is targeting Hezbollah assets with the aim of stopping the armed group’s missiles.
Lebanese officials say the air strikes killed 2,500 people, and the United Nations says one million people have been displaced in Lebanon.
The United Nations Development Program on Wednesday released grim economic estimates for the country, where poverty has already tripled between 2012 and 2022.
The agency estimates that the war could reduce 9.2 percent of Lebanon’s gross domestic product this year. The country already has the highest number of refugees of any country since the Syrian civil war.
In Ottawa, bureaucrats warned MPs on Thursday that it will take years to repair the damage in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and beyond.
“These are astronomical sums,” Alexandre Levick, a senior Canadian global affairs official, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The best the international community can do now is to do everything in its power to put an end to the fighting, so reconstruction can begin.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
