Derry Anti War Coalition can help you solve your last minute Christmas present problems AND provide practical solidarity to Palestinian refugees.

"Nahr al Bared Refugee Camp, located in Tripoli, Lebanon, was home to over 30,000 Palestinian refugees until May of this year, when – due to a conflict between the Lebanese army and an extremist organization called Fatah al Islaam – the entire civilian population of the camp was forced to flee and subsequently spent the next eight months living in over-crowded schools and community centres.

"During the battle 47 civilians, 168 soldiers and 222 Fatah al Islaam militants were killed. The majority of the refugee camp has been completely destroyed. As you can see from the photos here, homes, businesses, and the entire infrastructure of the camp (water, sanitation, electricity, schools, hospitals etc.) have been reduced to rubble.

"Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are an excluded community with no access to public health-care or education; they are banned from over 70 forms of employment. Even though the level of third-level education in the camp is extremely high, Palestinians are prohibited from practicing in their areas of training; for example refugees are not allowed to work as doctors, nurses, teachers, architects, dentists, engineers, taxi drivers etc.

"As a result of this discrimination there is an unemployment rate of over 40% in the camps and families struggle to survive. With the destruction of Nahr al Bared the vulnerability of the 6,000 residents who have returned to live in the ruins of their homes, in garages and in tents, is extreme and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

"Many families fled the camp with only the clothes on their backs and have returned to find their homes destroyed and their possessions (electrical appliances, furniture, clothes, mementos, jewellery and savings) burnt or looted. As the winter sets in these families have as yet only received relief of two blankets per family, although many families have 12 or more  family members, and children are still wandering around in the mud and cold winter rains in shorts and sandals. Two temporary clinics, run out of garages by voluntary doctors and nurses and reliant on donated medicines, are trying to cover the health needs of over 6,000 returned residents.

By supporting the Christmas present-card appeal, you are showing direct and practical solidarity with the refugee community of Nahr al Bared. All money raised will go directly, and immediately, towards the purchase and distribution of blankets, clothes and medicines for the clinics."