Press Release// Experience Life As A Syrian Refugee In Lebanon: Solidarités International Launches The Web Documentary "wou Ba’Aden" (Life After)

With the ongoing advance of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and its recent taking of the city of Palmyra, the Syrian conflict lingers and every day thousands of people are forced to leave their homes in emergency and fear. In four years of war in Syria, over 210,000 people have lost their lives, 10 million people have been displaced, and 1.5 million are refugees in neighboring Lebanon. Today in Lebanon, one person out of four is a refugee.
Shocking as these statistics may be, they don’t give a complete picture of what life is like for the Syrian people in Lebanon. That’s why SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL is offering internet users a very different way of understanding this unprecedented humanitarian crisis. With the interactive documentary "Wou Ba’aden" (Life after), you can experience life as a Syrian refugee in Lebanon.
“You have just crossed the Syrian border. Your life as a refugee starts here, in Lebanon. Finding somewhere to sleep, something to eat, to drink, or going to the toilet are challenges which must be faced over and over, day after day. Imagine you’re part of a Syrian family in exile. Make your way through this new universe and talk to as many people as possible in order to learn from their experience.”
Living in a camp, a collective shelter or in a small apartment in a town: try to work out how you would deal with the kind of problems that 1.5 million people have to face over and over, every day of their lives.
“Wou Ba’aden” is not a game. It is an interactive and explorative project created and directed by the impulsion of our local and national teams based in Tripoli (north Lebanon).The strengths of this web documentary lay in its origin, the field, its human dimension in substance and in form, and its will to raise awareness among the public in a participative way.
"Wou Ba’aden?” , two Arabic words that mean both "what now?" and "until when?"These two words are often heard in the informal settlements; as people queue to receive distributions of aid; or at the side of the road, where children sell tissues and chewing gum to earn a few coins to bring home to their families. It’s a question without an answer - yet it’s asked over and over again, as if to ward off the future and everything it might hold.
They have already talked about it:Radio France International (RFI): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cweGriq5pe0
L’Orient le Jour (French speaking Lebanese newspaper): http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/922494/wou-baden-dans-la-peau-dun-r...
"Wou Ba’aden?" is a web documentary created and produced by SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL, with the support of the European Union (ECHO) and UNICEF, and in partnership with the Paris-based production agency Darjeeling, and the freelance journalist Marine Pradel.
Experience life as a Syrian refugee in Lebanon via http://woubaaden.solidarites.org
Watch the teaser of the web documentary here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeSrr9OgyUw
For further information, media partnership or else, please contact Pauline Gregoire, Communication Officer in Lebanon: [email protected] or Rachel Erskine and Paul Duke, Field Communications Officers based in Paris, France: [email protected] / [email protected] .
To find out more about what SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL is doing to help those affected by the crisis in Syria: www.solidarites.org/en
Our mission in Lebanon: http://www.solidarites.org/en/our-missions/lebanon/our-action