REPORT: UN officials visit Syrian refugees in Lebanon on Women’s Day

Top officials from two United Nations agencies visited Syrian women living in an informal settlement in Lebanon, on International Women’s Day.
 
Chief of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi and executive director of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore discussed early marriage, education and domestic violence with the women.

“They told us that the biggest challenges are two. One is violence against women and children, often unfortunately domestic violence, and then early marriage. What I think the executive director and I found hopeful is that they have energy, they have ideas and they want to change things, thinking of their life here for the foreseeable future and eventually going back to Syria,” Grandi said.
 
More than half of the registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon are women and girls, according to a joint press release by UNHCR and UNICEF.
 
With the Syrian conflict approaching its seventh anniversary, at least 1.5 million Syrians have poured in Lebanon, equal to around a quarter of its population. Over three quarters of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live below the poverty line, according to the U.N. agencies.