King Hussien Center for research and information and Kudos University In collaboration of Child Watch International No place

for children during the war Lebanon case Amman 19-20 November 2008

The word of Doctor Kamel Muhanna: a pediatrician, a teacher at the Lebanese university President of Amel Association General coordinator of arab national volunteer network

I -The war and its effects on Lebanon and its population II-The effect of war on the children 1- Diseases and descendents of children 2-health care situation and its effects on children 3- Social and psychological repercussions of war and displacement on children 4- Studies results about the effects of Israeli invasion on children during July 2006. III-Suggested solutions on direct basis mid and long term solutions

IV-The role of national committees and cs organizations V-Closure: read your future through your children

I -The war and its effects on Lebanon and its population Lebanon is considered as a symbol of a country devastated by the war that started on 12 April 1975 and ended on 1989 by the Taef agreement. The number of deaths reached 150 thousand and 200 thousand others were wounded, mostly children and women. This war had definitely left behind a devastated and torn up society humanitarian-wise, and caused in diminishing living levels , resources and destroyed infrastructures. As it increased the level of disassociation in the society and in the state as well, weakened the connections in between the community, and encouraged people to retreat under the cover of non-governmental parties and associations. The war hit the whole society, especially those of limited wage, such as employers and middle class workers, which were the main components of the community before war was launched, so it resulted in social disorders that accumulated long lasting enigmas, such as the spread of suburbs surrounding Beirut, which the French IFRED in 1959 warned from their consequences, and pointed at the depth of the disparities in between the production and the different categories of the society. The most important part about the study is that it revealed around 50% of the Lebanese people ( poor ones) were only getting 18 % of the national income, where only 4% of the Lebanese people were taking hold of the national income. The war during 1975 accumulated all the previous disorders on all the levels, where the political and social crises met with the regional and international intervenes, therefore the war and the Israeli invasion in addition to the massive immigration resulted in a radical constructional change in the economic and social composition of the Lebanese territories, which resulted mainly in the increase of hoods and towns having the same sect. The social effects of the war were shown through the following: 1Internal migration of quarter of the population, where it was estimated that 200 thousand people left their residences between 1975-1991 (from around 949 village and city, 82 of them were totally destroyed and 91 of them were partially destroyed) Excessive migration to other countries, were 517 thousand people migrated from Lebanon between the years 1975 and 1991, which 1602% of the population. The degradation of social and public services quality and quantity wise. Specially: educational, health, and transportation services..etc Thousands of disable and orphan cases. The psychological effects of the war on the Lebanese people and especially the children.

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The circumstances of the war forced the community to coop with the emergency situation, for the governmental role diminished but on the other hand the national committees role rose to the top (including amel association that was founded during the Israeli invasion in 1978) in the fields of relief , emergency, health services and direct aids whether in kind or cash, till Taef agreement in 1989 was concluded and put an end to the war, and the new government was obliged to start the project of reconstructing the state, with the collaboration of cs organizations in order to eliminate the burden of social, health and developments negative effects of the war. This burden made the organizations (including the ones fro children) to relocate and spread in a very short time, basing on a program different from the ones they followed during the war. The effects of the war were not limited to the problems that we previously mentioned, but it also created more problems, the psychological effects resulted from the war surpassed those of materialistic destruction of economy and towns. These effects were revealed through psychological and neurotic diseases, through physical and psychological twists perversions and disabilities, through a moral and behavioral deterioration, through regression, anxiety, asthenia, amnesia, phobia, perversion, depression cases, and through schizophrenia and mental disorders; In short, all pathological symptoms of behavioral disorders. Here we must mention that addiction on alcohol and drugs, and suicide rates increased among the Lebanese population. The war was more devastating for the weakest and less tolerating people such as children, women, elders, and patients. The war also helped in raising a generation of children who believe that war and destruction are regular elements of life instead of considering them as negative aspects ( a study done by dr. Muna Maksood pointed at the effects of the war on children who encountered different types of damages during their childhood). In addition, other problems were found, like the issue of captives and missing people, the issue of determining the places of the group massacres and the issue of migrant's return to al Jabal and Beirut. The war didnt really end in 1991, for the Israeli army was still occupying a part of the Lebanese territory which lead the Lebanese resistance to continue its military operations against them , then Israel responded to these operations by attacking Lebanon several times, two of the most important attacks are the ones happened in 1993 under the name of Operation Accountability and , and the attack in 1996 under the name of operation grapes of wrath were qana massacre took place and more than 100 civilian Lebanese people were killed, mostly children and women who asked for shelter at the UN camps. The war with Israel ended in 2000 after the resistance and the population of Lebanon won the battle, and the Israeli army and the traitors withdrew from the area except from Shebaa farms and the hills of Kafarshuba, till year 2006 when Israel severely attacked Lebanon and killed more than 1100

people, injured other 4000 and around million persons were forced to migrate from their homes and towns , and its estimated than most of the victims were children. In addition to that, the Israeli army threw, before the issue of the resolution 1701, more than million cluster bombs over the southern territories, which caused them a constant tragedy, especially for the children,. Since July war 2006, 70 martyrs and 600 wounded were victims of cluster bombs, mostly children, these bombs are spread around houses, gardens and trees, and the rain made things worse , where it buried them underground and made it much harder to find them and avoid them. The effects of the Israeli wars on Lebanon are the same as those of WW2 in Europe, considering the size of the state and its population, and if the children are considered 45% of the population then half the war reached half of the population , therefore what are these effects and how did it reflect on the children ?

II- The effect of war on children

In September 1990, all the leaders of the world gathered and met in the UN headquarter in New York to discuss a program of a single subject: children. At the end of this summit, 91 of the leaders in addition to another 18 representatives adopted to issue a declaration to develop and protect the child and a plan to execute the parts of this declaration. Lebanon signed this declaration in 1990 and by the end of 1992 Lebanon agreed upon the agreement. In this declaration the children of the world had promises that won't be fulfilled. The survey done by the UNICEF revealed shocking facts, that contradicts with the claims of equality among humans, where the powerful people are exploiting those who are weak, and third world children are being killed by poverty and underdevelopment, where 14 million children under the age 5 die every year, which is around 40 thousand child per day. Also, around 10 million children are being victims of war and deprived from education and health care. In Lebanon, a study about children during war showed that the Lebanese child had been exposed to 5 or 6 shocking experiences, and 90.3 % of children witnessed bombing, 68% were obliged to be displaced from their homes, 54.5% suffered severe poverty, 50.3% witnessed several actions of violence, 26 % of them lost one of their siblings and 21.3% were separated from their parents. A study about the situation of children with cooperation with UNICEF and the main survey board showed that : 1- 66.6% of children below the age of 14 work outside their homes with and without any wages. 2- 45% of children cut out school before the 3rd cycle, which leads them to be abandonment and working for low wages. 3- The rates implicate to distinguishing differences between regions: Beirut and the mountain district enjoy the best living situations.

Another study done by AUB on 1984 about the children and their health in greater Beirut , and a study done by the UNICEF with the cooperation of the ministry of health and social services in 1990 about the death rates of children in Lebanon showed that : - Children from age one month to one year : 35 thousand deaths. - Children from the age of one month till 5 years old : 43 thousand deaths. And its important to mention that Lebanon and before war was the first on the list concerning death rates and now its after Bahrain and equal to Jordan. 1-The map of diseases and deaths for children: The death rates at the borders of the country are much more than those in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. For the living levels in Mount Lebanon is 29% better than other territories. - Rate of death between the 2 genders: no difference noticed. - Some rates are related to the education level of the women, where it is 8 times less when the mother is educated. - Some death rates are related to social and economic level , where the deaths rates are three times less in the rich families than those of the poor. - Spread of contagious diseases specially the ones of no vaccines : severe respiratory diseases, joints infections, TB, encephalitis and meningitis , malnutrition , 10% of the children between the ages of 6 and 12 years, their weight and height is less than normal , but in Lebanon there is no real malnutrition problems except thyroid gland diseases and Dental caries. - 3% of deaths are because of poising incidents that occur in a month or 4. - Sever diarrhea: 1.3% of children die because of diarrhea. - Vaccinations for contagious diseases : increasing the protection level to more than 80% against paralysis, Croup, pertussis, and tetanus, and 39.7% against chickenpox during the past five years between the ministry of health , UNICEF, WHO, and national committees. - Skin diseases: the statistics of the national committees network in collaboration with the ministry of education year 1990 point at the following : schools of abu jmeil valley where the migrants settled: Scabies disease , Lice 67%, 19% of skin infections and the spread of infectious diseases such as typhoid, tuberculosis and jaundice migrants. 2-The deteriorating health conditions, represent one of poverty features everywhere. In this context the UNICEF report points to the situation of children in Lebanon in 2000, and despite the improvement of the basic indicators related to child survival and their build up at the national level , the statistics indicate, that about 50% of the Lebanese are not included in Health insurance (except the Ministry of Public Health Services provides them). The social health problem is summarized in the fact of the inequality -

of opportunities for the Lebanese in order to obtain the same quantity and quality of health, preventive, curative services that are associated with the level of income and regional. The national health indicators in Lebanon hide significant disparities at the level of the region and society. For example, the infant mortality rate (under one year) in Lebanon for the period 1986 - 1995 reached 33.5 per thousand births, but that the study of the internal distribution of these ratios showed significant variations depending on the level of education of the mother, level of education is considered as an indirect indication that for the social situation (low education level indicates of poverty): (Table 1) the relationship between the education level of the mother and children mortality (1 new baby born per thousand)

neonatal mortality rate (under 28 (" days

38.2 33.3 23.4 23.6 12.8 24.9

infant mortality rate ((under one year

54.5 51.1 29.6 30.5 14.8 33.5

education level of the mother Illiterate Reads and writes Elementary intermediate Secondary and above National rate

And the same level of disparity between the capital and metropolitan areas is noticed on one hand, and the rural areas on the other. these regional geographical disparities, result in 60% of child deaths recorded in the provinces of the Bekaa and the North, although they only contain 25% of the children of Lebanon. This disparity is noticed through various public health indicators such as the distribution of hospital beds ,for there are 6.55 beds per thousand citizens in Beirut and Mount Lebanon while it is 0.86 in the areas of Nabatiyeh and Bekaa, and it is noticed, in addition to the regional disparities , other inequalities within these areas between the provincial centers, the District centers, and the majority of rural villages, where a correlation between poverty and health conditions is shown, and among these inequalities , the results of the Lebanese survey of maternal and child health, showed that 12.2% of children who suffer from stunting (low height in relation to health, which is Chronic malnutrition), are related to the situation of the regions they live in (1% underweight in Mount Lebanon, and 9.8% in the south. Dwarfism ratio is 4.9% in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, 31.2% in the Bekaa). Moreover, the suffering of 300.000 Palestinians, where more than half live in camps in difficult conditions and there are about 12.000 evicted Lebanese families living in squalid conditions and in places that are not appropriate for living.

3. The effects of war and displacement on children at the psychological and social level : A - direct effects: in the form of psychological trauma resulting from serious anxiety that's accompanied with the lack of safety measures, which results on the long-term in an anxious personality that shows via the emotional and behavioral reactions that might cause the following : talking difficulties involuntary urination - fear of lonesome -overprotecting parents -- Sleep difficulties nutrition difficulties - the fear of strangers and strange places hyperactivity and instability - difficulties with concentration and comprehension - parasitic - pessimism and lack of self-confidence. b- The effects of the strained family situation: the implications of war and tensions associated with the uncertainty in the future and that effects the family life in the form of: tension problems- - depression and destitution anger outbursts between the parents that might reflect on the children in the form of anxiety, disability accompanied by health physical and mental Symptoms, and on of the most difficult cases is the wait-and-see position and being worried about the results and the ambiguity of the future which might reflect on planning the children's lives, as well as being concerned about sudden risks which lead to sickly restrain the child's freedom , to narrow his vital scope that might lead him to isolate himself into closed circles that lack all the elements of life. c-The effects resulted from the disruption of parental roles: disruption of parenting roles., the disruption of power and the changing places which reflects on who is the family reference which might lead to its weakness or collapse, and fall within the same category of the effects resulting from disintegration of family whether abandonment or divorce, as well as the disruption of life plans and live life day to day. d-The effects of changing the nature of the vital field: the shift of the outside world from an attractive one to a threatened full of dangers as well as the decline of the vital area in terms of the absence of cultural amphetamine: the lack of public parks places of Games - casinos - the exhibitions - Theaters Cinemas, etc. As well as occasions for social and cultural interaction that enriches the child's personality and helps in its composition, for merely depending on the study of basic materials only represents the basis of the educational process while the personality is built up via social interaction and activities suitable for all ages. e-The effects of displacement: The displacement is considered one of the biggest shocks of war in terms of losing the familiar and safe vital area - and falling into the strange world that lacks the elements of a normal life - as well as the disruption of social restrictions and the deterioration of morals and ethics and embarking upon delinquent practices and non-disrupted social behavior of and joining delinquent armed or unarmed groups. It should be pointed to the economic difficulties (various forms of unemployment) and

their effects on the atmosphere and the cohesion of the family and their impact on children and their perversion. Displacement is one of the most serious problems of war because of its effects on mental health, behavioral adjustment and social cohesion - and the deterioration of school life and falling in the educational and professional abandonment later. f-The effects of the population divisions: the categorization of the population and the withdrawal to closed areas having one color threatens to eliminate the national identity into a local or sectarian identity. This decline is accompanied by loss of loyalty feelings to the country and the absence of a central referral authority with all the its legal national and symbolic value. And this situation is coupled with the emergence of feelings of intolerance and fascist tendencies to enclose within a group and irritate the feelings of hostility towards other groups and other vital areas and other regions (hostile areas - areas of risk areas of threat). G - the effects of the general careless behavioral and the collapse of standards: actions to defraud the law - the dominance selfishness at the expense of others and at the legal principles of behaving - adjustment of status of the war by breaking the law. H - Experimental neuroses: Status of trouble where the person doesnt know what to decide how to make a decision when Standing between two options: dtente or an explosion, the solution or the escalation ... Etc.. 4-The results of studies about the impact of the Israeli aggression on children in the summer of 2006: Children are very diverse social groups, the children dont represent a "homogeneous mass" There are poor children and educated children, and there are children in educational institutions , illiterates ,dropouts, and there are also "working children ,children with disabilities , young offenders and street children ... etc.. The studies show how the war effects the mental health of children and adolescents as well as adults. One of the most important studies conducted after the attack in July 2006 is done by a team under the supervision of Dr. Adnan al-Amine, which shows the following differences: a- That a high percentage of children and young people suffers from "symptoms of post-traumatic pressure" (PTSD). It ranges from 27.7% of students enrolled in classes I to V and 26.4% of students enrolled in classes VI to XII. These proportions are very close to the rates that are globally known" in the countries that have experienced wars "and conflicts (25%), and they are less than the rates that showed in a number of these countries. Sometimes it reached more than 70% in countries where children were exposed to severe violence (in Rwanda). In Kuwait the symptoms of post-traumatic stress of the students reached 45.6% that is after 4 years from the Iraqi invasion according to one of the

studies . While another trial study showed that more than 70% of children recorded mid and high levels of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. A third study also showed that 65% of these children have the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. But a forth one revealed that only 4% suffer major symptoms, 23% suffer moderate symptoms and 34% minor symptoms. In Palestine the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder ranged among the studies where it occurred for: 59% of the children who were directly bombed (Thbet et al, 2002), 33% reached the high level of the symptoms and 49% the mid-level (Qouta and Odeb, 2005), 41% among those who reached the severe level (Thabet and Vostanis, 1999) ,54% ofr those at the severe level and 33.5% of those at the mid-level (Qouta et al, 2003), and 65.5% in the range of clinical post-traumatic stress disorder (Thabet et al, 2007). these mixed results show that the children of Lebanon and his youth have lower rates than seen in children and youth of Palestine and Kuwait in the measurement of pressure after the trauma. When comparing the groups having these symptoms in Lebanon it shows that the least common symptom is avoidance, while the most common are symptoms of arousal, and the symptoms of " re-experiencing the event falls in the middle between the first two. The Symptom of "avoidance indicates avoiding recalling the incident, as in avoiding thoughts and feelings that are associated with shock and avoid all memories related to the incident and being unable to recover some events and feeling anguish when exposed to any incentives related to the shocking incident. The "recovery" includes recovering the facts, and feeling as if the event is being repeated thus reliving the incident repeatedly. The" arousal "refers to having problems in sleeping, agitation, difficulties in concentrating, excessive awareness and physiological excitement about the incentives related to the trauma. B- a moderate rate of students suffer from the symptoms of anxiety, which includes anxiety fear, tension and nervousness. C - a high rate of students (compared to American samples) suffer from perceived stress, which means facing some stressful events they went through previously . D - The disorders of fear & worry are more common between the Lebanese samples, compared to an American sample. (where the same tool was used on ordinary students), where the arithmetic average of the Lebanese males reached 5.43 while 4.94 for their American peers. The impact of war on mental health has other effects with time because of the continuity of feeling security, socially, economically and psychologically threatened, and it is reflected on the parents , all family members including children, which creates a threat on the" Basic security feeling "says Dr. Mustafa Hijazi, which is like the land hes walking on, which does not help in the development of positive psychological health for the human being especially among adolescents that dont look forward for the future and think

of death, and this makes him live the here and now feeling as if his future is not guaranteed. Possible factors to lessen the psychological problems: - The factor of adjustment and adaptation with the war and the formation of national networks during displacement and immigration and taking care of the residents. - The factor of the nuclear or extended family with solidarity and mutual assistance represents a protection factor in different circumstances. - The factor of the "case": resisting Israel and the development of the personality of "combatant" or Mujahed ... which is a kind of adaptation and Resilience with the harsh reality and its consequences. - Spiritual factor: our region was meant to be the correlation of all the religions so all interpreters describes the east as spiritual and the west as materialistic. III-Suggested solutions for the effects of war on children: 1-direct-solutions: the treatment of the psychological effects of war on children, needs a wide social treatment, not only through the clinic with the parents, but its the responsibility of the official and civil society as a whole.. Etc...meaning that there is a need to bring all the efforts together , for this category of the society represents our future, so if we didnt have the luck to find solutions for their problems, then our future is threatened, for the mental health and luxury are not exclusive for only one category of people, but it is a right for everyone to enjoy life. One of the means of treatment is adopting indirect means, like implementing activities within a social and psychological frame work, in order to express about the suffrage , for the psychological treatment should not be as a direct investigation , but it should seek to talk about the suffering through games and words, (for example , a kid born in khiyam , always draw his house with a tab water near it , but once he forgot to draw it so he went back and drew the tab quickly, it turned out the his home was on fire and there was no water to bring it down, so the treatment of this anxiety is the tab water to put out the fire. ) The role of the family: when the family is well treated, the child is treated. Using the expressive treatment with the parents that hold within themselves a historical wounds, by expressing their thoughts, letting go of the past and look forward to the future, which also takes a long time with the adults. Stopping war: the war causes in changing the views towards others , after being exposed to crises and having trauma because of it , silence haunts them , so the treatment would be by letting this silence go and talking about heir experiences. Freed captives: they dont want to talk, for they think we wont understand what they went through and the words betray their experience.

Mid and long term solutions: a- family: the house and the family are considered the main element of building up the and developing the personality of the child, and the education level of the parents especially the mother is very important , for the deaths of the children among educated mothers is 8 times less than those are illiterate.

The mentality that is enveloped within the social environment in our country is a restraining mentality injunctions where it is found in the family, at school, where the family and the school from the hidden system of power and transfer the prevailing ideology, where the mentality of yelling dominates the general behavior where the husband yells at his wife and she yells at her children as well, so when the children get older theyll yell at each other and so on.. Through my own personal experience as a pediatrician I noticed that the child's mother complained to me that her son is: "Not eating, shy, short height, with weak infrastructure, lazy in school, do not take care of his belongings ..." these are negative terms, that is, we educate our children basing on a negative behavior and we are not working on building up the positive ones in the community. The cultural heritage goes along with prevailing a popular proverb a child will always be childish even if he ruled a country meaning that the child does not understand and accommodate. The father that violates his child, by saying that he works day by night to provide him food while he is being lazy at school and hopeless. These words hurt the child all his lifetime, for most of the words we use towards children are negative ones, for example we yell at him when are at the neighbors if he did something wrong and we apologize by saying that the child isnt aware of what he is doing, this is devastating for the child, where also he is treated the same by the tutor at school when he yells at the him when answering him back . After all of that we wonder within ourselves why the child refuses to participate in the election to change the leaders around him in case they are wrong if they are raised on the culture of obedience and repression. This negative thinking, repression, obedience and the different powers at home or in the society makes the process of change and reform complex and difficult. We need to adopt modern educational methods where the child is considered, as the famous teacher, "Philip Mirai" describes him "an awakening element" , for he is the effective element and it is our role to develop the effectiveness by building up a positive , responsible and interactive human with others. Another issue is the way the mothers act toward the child nutrition, for the involuntary emotions make us force a child to eat, since we can not wait and we do not know that the child doesnt accept to stay without food and he loves life just like the adults. Letting the child be responsible saves the time we spend by helping him to eat instead of letting him do so in the first place without the assistance of

anyone.one of the scientists wondered in front of a group of mothers that are concerned about their child's nutrition : have you ever seen a child dying from hunger ? and he suggested on them to put the food in front of the child and let him choose the time to eat without obliging him to, especially that psychologically the child will refuse everything he's been obliged to take it , for that will make him feel as if he is making his own decisions during the phase of " developing the personality" , or sometimes the child is very obedient and responding to the orders of his parents which makes the parents happy while they are not aware that he's doing that to prove himself . It's only simple things if we knew how to act right toward them we would accomplish a lot. B- school : School after the family is most important in influencing the child's personality and development, the tests conducted in many countries has shown (Bahrain, for example), that the method of memorization and mobilizing the largest amount of information is less useful, while giving the child a choice helps in developing his Character and increases his chances of recovery. Thus the school must be transformed into a healthy and sound environment, and health education curriculum should be promoted and building a systematic relationship between parents and schools to adopt the principles of a sound education... C- Child labor and the importance of compulsory education: The negative impacts and consequences of child labor are not only about the breach of the laws and international and national commitments, but derives its merits to the regions and other social groups where the issue of early access to the labor market can not be isolated from the problem of the lack of basic education. The economic exploitation of child labor leads to a lack in their growth and psychological and physical integrity. Therefore, it is necessary to make all efforts and mobilize energies for the development of laws to protect children and ensure their right to free and compulsory education and its requirements. D- Violence against children: All types of violence practiced on human beings are not acceptable, what if the child is the target of this violence? The children of Lebanon had enough of war violence throughout the civil war, and some of our children are still facing violence from Israeli attacks and the most heinous crimes are being practiced against them (there are a cluster bomb for each child in the south), or through internal conflicts. the war affected on our children and created psychological traumas resulting from serious concern that accompanies the lack of security, which could lead to long-term anxious personality with an irritating behavior that might result in previously mentioned effects. Recent studies done on our children in the south, who are exposed to Israeli shelling showed that depression among boys (from 6 to 12 years) is five times more than the global average for the children around the world who were not exposed to war.

E- Child abuse: The complex issue of child abuse makes us think about the capabilities that lead to developing the social educational work at the level of behaviors and acts. The deterioration of the economic situation , the unavailability of the basic public services , and the pollution of the environment will lead in case there are no fast solutions for the social-economical situation- to negative results in the health development for citizens especially kids. All what was mentioned is considered a violation for children rights declaration, which will negatively affect on the mental and health growth of the child. IV-The role of national committees and the organizations of civil society: There are three types of non-governmental organizations that are concerned with childhood: - Social welfare associations that provide health and educational services. - Local development associations: interested in the development of the reality of the child in the framework of fully taking care of the local environment. - Advocacy groups are civil defense organizations that are active in the field of defending the rights of children and seek to influence policies and legislation related to children. Non-governmental organizations which are many in Lebanon, in particular those involved in the field of childhood have embraced the declaration of children rights. And that since the 90s the national capacities has been mobilized, particularly in 1993, and then in 1995, were most of the national committees represented during thecivil war the contrast of to the reality of killing, destruction and displacement, where they healed wounds, and provided assistance, and took care of others (in contrary with the mentality of elimination that was among the combatants) so these organizations were close to people and they shared their concerns (with the exception of a few used the humanitarian work in order to show off by itself). they also experienced the same problems of suffering the people are facing , so the organization represented a main reference for them to bare the difficult conditions of war and dangers resulting from the shelling, displacement, murder and destruction ... Etc.. the role of NGOs during the years Has been marked by accepting the challenge despite the difficulty and seriousness of the situation, and their activities were often creative in order to meet people's needs, as well as being flexible and adapted to the changing of the events, interactive with the community, and holding responsibility in participating with the people and cooperating with the public sector And international organizations, where the team spirit and group work are spread (contrary to the individualism and subjectivity in our society) in an atmosphere of sacrifice and giving.

The experience of national committees during civil war is an evidence of "the importance of the role of civil society in Lebanon, whether through submissions made by these institutions at the level of emergency and relief, or through the maintaining the symbol of national peace or even try to maintain these institutions to the role of the state (usually the opposite should happen). NGOs have taken several initiatives in close collaboration with local communities to implement them despite the limited potential, so it contributed in preventing the disintegration of Lebanese society, and it did not stop giving despite the killings ,destruction and the divisive atmosphere, and there were always who took care of reconstructing hospitals , schools and health care institutions. The number of clinics and health centers increased from 250 to 761, mostly affiliated to the national committees and the number of civil associations which handles those with special needs before the war reached 20 then their number rose to about 80 as well as for the associations for children, which doubled its role and effectiveness. Closure: Based on the recommendations listed above, it can be said that assistance in the field of mental health in Lebanon, because of the "multiple incidents of exposure and the diversity of these incidents, it is necessary to follow the disclosure of exposure to the incidents of july war at the national, at the level of families and The level of each school, through the mechanisms of identifying the types of disturbances that this exposure has left with its different kinds and levels, and the recurrence of such disclosures and followup the clinical cases , and establishing of appropriate systems to provide psychological support for children and youth depending on "the results of surveys and follow-up. The childhood in Lebanon, despite of the efforts, still lack many basic components, including, in addition to the need for psychological support, the necessary attention at all levels: health social, and education ... Etc.. "The future of our society is read through the reality of our children" so we must work towards finding a radical solution to the suffering of children and the rest of the community that is through stopping the series of wars and providing appropriate political climates. First among these is to find a just solution to the Palestinian issue, the central issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict , and in Lebanon, working towards building a civil state and adopt a national comprehensive development and filling the gap between rural and urban areas, women and men, and rich and poor. The recognition - by the State - of the role of civil society organizations as partners with the government in programming, planning and implementation. As working also on promoting human rights despite the political and cultural point of views especially rights of children who through them we know the future of our reality.