Paper details

Paper authors	Molly Gilmour
In panel on	Everyday humanitarianism
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Lebanon is a conflict-affected state reliant on humanitarian healthcare due to compounded shocks and state neglect. By examining how two crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘Beirut blast’ - affected staff and Syrian families at a Médecins Sans Frontières thalassemia unit, this research sheds new light on experiences of precarity. Methods included audio-diaries, interviews, document analysis and co-development groups. This presentation examines how staff responded to everyday fragility in Lebanon, what service decisions were made and the implications of this on people’s lives. My findings trace how deteriorating living conditions compounded traumatic events participants experienced, as societal tensions and distrust in healthcare services escalated. The procedural reallocation of resources in an emergency response results in the neglect of NCDs, which may cause proportional long-term harm. This presentation analyses the unintended harms for families as parents described walking the streets seeking care for their children, relayed stories of onward and return migration. Moreover, NCDs can create forced immobility for families, leading me to ask who is left behind and how this affects health trajectories. Through examining routine experiences of providing and receiving thalassemia care, this presentation contributes to the wider debate on the necessity for long-term NCD treatment in humanitarian assemblages.

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