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This Menstrual Hygiene Day we reflect on the courage and strength from the girls and women we met during our recent hygiene pack distribution to Lebanon’s largest Syrian refugee camp in Beqaa Valley.

When you stand in Bar Elias, Beqaa Valley , you can look across the mountains to Syria. Bekaa Valley is home to the largest population of the 2.2 million Syrian refugees currently living in camps in Lebanon.

Syrian refugees have fled war-torn Syria with a few of their belongings and the realization that their lives will never be the same. We were in Bar Elias and other refugee camps in early May to distribute the 700 female hygiene packs that you generously donated, taking crucial items directly to girls and women in need.

[/fusion_text][fusion_text]On our trip in Beqaa Valley, we met many incredible women. Their stories were heart-wrenching, but their strength and courage was inspiring. Each tent had a different story to tell.

The heart-wrenching story of Fatima

In the very first tent, we met 14 year old Fatima and her mother. The two of them traveled to Lebanon with their father two years ago. Fatima told us about how they all lived in a large apartment in Syria and were extremely close with their grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles.

The day her family fled Syria is a day that young Fatima will never forget. She tells us how they went to visit her grandfather after school who had recently been released from hospital. After making sure he was okay, Fatima and her parents left the house to return home for dinner. They had only walked a few paces when a bomb fell on her beloved grandfather’s house, killing all of her extended family.

The family managed to escape Syria with very few belongings, and after to resettle in a refugee camp in Lebanon.

[/fusion_text][fusion_text]When we met Fatima and her mother and handed them the female hygiene pack, Fatima broke down in tears and revealed that they hadn’t had underwear since they left their home two years ago. The most basic of items, without which girls and women feel they have lost their dignity.

“I wish I had died in the attack that killed my family…” she said.

The absence of undergarments and feminine hygiene products has made Fatima’s life extremely difficult.

Please continue to support refugee women and girls like Fatima this #MHDay and provide them hope by sponsoring our hygiene packs. Find out more about our Hygiene Packs Project by clicking here.[/fusion_text][/one_full]