Civil war broke up two years ago in Syria, and has resulted in massive loss of life, limb and property. The real dimension of the humanitarian tragedy in Syria is still largely under-estimated. Internally-displaced persons have not been accounted yet, while more than a million refugees have been registered by the office of the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in camps and settlements in countries neighboring Syria.It is widely believed that the UNHCR numbers do not represent the real dimension of the problem; especially in Lebanon where refugees have repeatedly refused to register for fear of exposing family members still living in Syria to retaliation. Some statistics suggest that Lebanon is now home to a million Syrian citizens, who would not have been normally residing before the Syrian civil war started. Whole families are now distributed not only in camps on the borders, but also inside the cities wherever someone, a family member or relative working in Lebanon, could accommodate them.

Harboring one Syrian refugee for each four Lebanese citizens is not a light burden. Aside from the political disruption and economic loss that the Syrian crisis has already caused in Lebanon, there are serious health and social consequences which can no longer be ignored. Outbreaks of communicable diseases (such as measles,tuberculosis, and scabies) have been reported in refugee settlements. Government agencies in Lebanon need support to develop a comprehensive plan to face the mounting crisis. There is evidence of social tensions with host communities.