Aid Convoy Reaches Hard-Hit Southern Lebanon

Two Mercy Corps truckloads of critical food supplies and blankets reached the beleaguered town of Marjayoun on Tuesday, one of the first organized relief convoys to reach this devastated part of southern Lebanon since the current crisis began.

Two hundred and forty families received emergency food parcels with flour, cooking oil, canned goods and basic food items designed to feed a family of ten for one week. Several dozen beneficiary families have fled to Marjayoun from points further south, and are temporarily residing in local schools. Approximately 1,500 blankets were also distributed to these and other families.

Marjayoun, which had a pre-conflict population 12,000, is the principal town in a region populated by Shiites, Druze and Christians just south of the Litani River, close to the Israeli and Syrian borders. Just last year, Mercy Corps helped rebuild the ancient cobblestone marketplace in the center of town, part of the agency's multi-million-dollar effort to boost tourism in southern Lebanon.

David Holdridge, Mercy Corps' Middle East program director, says that perhaps as few as 1,500 remain in the town.

Holdridge reported heavily bombed roads along the 55-kilometer route from Beirut. As a result, it took five hours to make a trip that usually took 45 minutes. At some points, the aid convoy had to drive through groves of olive trees to bypass deeply-cratered roads.

"So many of the main roads are not passable," Holdridge indicated.

Mercy Corps hopes Tuesday's distribution will be the first of several agency convoys to southern Lebanon in the coming days, where displaced families remain in dire need of immediate assistance.

Help us continue these lifesaving aid convoys and respond quickly to emerging needs by donating to the Lebanon Crisis Fund.