Crises Can Happen at Anytime
In a region where conflict and crises can happen at any time, Anera is always ready to step in to deliver humanitarian relief, easing people’s suffering and helping them return to their normal lives.
Families living in poverty have few resources available to confront emergency situations like flooding and war. In a time of emergency, the basic necessities of life like food, shelter and water disappear quickly. And when communities are closed off, like Gaza or the refugee camps of Lebanon, delivering humanitarian aid is even more challenging.
Thanks to the support of our donors, Anera currently maintains nine offices and 110 staff members in the Middle East.
Gaza
Densely populated Gaza has suffered a blockade since 2007 that limits the flow of goods and people into and out of the region. As a result, poverty, poor sanitation and unreliable water and power infrastructure are endemic problems. Gaza is frequently subjected to missile strikes, shelling and other military attacks that cause casualties and damage healthcare, water, and other infrastructure, especially during conflict escalations.
West Bank
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, require humanitarian assistance. Many face food insecurity and difficulty accessing proper healthcare. And the decades-long occupation continues to infringe on access to basic housing and livelihoods.
Lebanon
Lebanon is home to more than 1 million Palestinian and Syrian refugees, many of whom lack access to necessities like adequate housing, education and employment opportunities. And the collapse of the Lebanese financial system has thrown millions of Lebanese into poverty in recent years, leaving many more people in need of humanitarian assistance.
Jordan
Jordan hosts one of the largest populations of refugees in the world. Over one million Syrians reside in Jordan, adding to the Palestinian refugee populations that the country already hosts. Food insecurity affects hundreds of thousands of people in Jordan. Many refugees live in poverty. Access to essential services like mental health care is often limited for vulnerable populations.
Quick and Flexible Response
Our staff and volunteers in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan come from the communities they serve. As a result, we're able to draw from a wealth of highly specific local and cultural expertise, making us more agile and better equipped to respond quickly and effectively. Whether it's with relief for Lebanon refugees or humanitarian aid to Gaza, we strive to make the support of our donors deliver the greatest possible impact.
Anera has been delivering humanitarian relief for refugees and local communities since our founding in 1968, thanks to the help of supporters from all over the world.
To combat food insecurity, Anera delivers food aid to the families most in-need, particularly during religious holidays and at moments of acute crisis. And during times of conflict escalation, Anera mobilizes our extensive network of medical donations partners to deliver urgent medical aid to hospitals and clinics.
Anera’s longstanding on-the-ground presence in Gaza allows us to improve residents' lives by bringing in medical supplies and supporting healthcare facilities. In the wake of bombings, we deliver hot meals, food vouchers and other emergency supplies for displaced and vulnerable families.
Our work in the West Bank began in the immediate aftermath of the 1967 war as we worked to meet the needs of the people displaced by the fighting. Since then, the Israeli occupation has endured, along with ever-present potential for violence generated by the conflict. Anera continues to deliver humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities, particularly during times of crisis.
In Lebanon, Anera works directly with all communities to provide emergency humanitarian relief and long-term support through job programs, language training, health and hygiene initiatives and more. During the cold and wet winter months, we partner with our vocational sewing course students to produce blankets and warm clothing for refugees living in tented settlements in the mountains.
After the explosion at the Beirut port in 2020, Anera immediately acted to provide emergency support to overwhelmed medical centers. And we adapted our programs to include longer term responses to the destruction by, for instance, restoring the homes and apartments of vulnerable families who saw their housing destroyed in the 2020 explosion in Beirut.
And in Jordan, Anera’s medical donations program delivers vital medical aid to refugee camps. During Ramadan, we also ensure food-insecure families are able to put food on the table to share when they break the fast together.
108,400
hot meals in Gaza
...delivered for six weeks to thousands of displaced families and others affected by the bombings of Gaza in May 2021.
2,031
youths in Lebanon
...paid through our vocational courses to produce washable sanitary pads, rehabilitate homes, sew winter clothing and provide other aid.
4,500
meals in Jordan
...provided through a combination of door-to-door distributions and iftar gatherings.
How It Works
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Assess
Assess the type of emergency and the damage inflicted.
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Identify
Identify primary needs of the community.
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Deliver
Deliver timely relief through local staff on the ground.
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Monitor
Monitor success and impact.
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Implement
Implement safeguards for future emergencies.
Our staff managing medical aid donations have a tried-and-true system for getting families and communities what they need most: medicines, food packages, clothes, blankets, hygiene supplies, and more. They deliver many millions of dollars of humanitarian relief to families and medicines to charitable clinics and hospitals.
In 2021 and 2022, Anera’s humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza helped replenish supplies of medicines at over-taxed hospitals and ensure that families had critically needed hygiene kits, water and food even while bombs fell. In Lebanon, we help ease the burden for thousands of vulnerable Lebanese, and Palestinian and Syrian refugees that fled Syria’s conflict. Our emergency response and the speed of our assistance efforts rely heavily on the generosity of our supporters.
“We lost everything, including our clothing and furniture...and our stove. We couldn’t even salvage one single cooking pot. The entire kitchen is gone.”
— The father of 9-year-old Islam (pictured) describes the damage his family’s home sustained in May 2021. They got hot meals from Anera while they rebuilt their lives.
