The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with a group of 37 NGOs that make up the Libyan Consortium for Humanitarian and Legal Work, has begun targeted distributions of essential non-food relief items to displaced families (IDPs) living in camps around the country, particularly in and around Tripoli.
The aid, which includes blankets, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, has now been distributed to over 1,000 families or 4,800 people living in IDP sites in the Janzour, Airport Road and Felallah areas of Tripoli.
The sites, together with 14 others, are home to families forced to flee the small town of Tawergha, located between the coastal cities of Mistrata and Sirte, during the revolution that led to the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime.
Tawergha, which before the revolution had a population of 30,000, is now a ghost town. The townspeople, who are perceived to have backed the previous regime, are still unable to return home two years after the conflict.
The distribution of aid in the camps included 500 sets of toothbrushes and tooth paste for children, who thanked IOM and consortium aid workers in song.
“IDPs in Libya are among the most vulnerable in our society and there is a continued need to provide basic services for them until they can return to their places of origin,” said consortium head Masim Al-Kabear.
“IOM has used its stocks of relief items to do this distribution, but we now need additional funds to meet the longer terms needs that are evident in IDP communities,” says IOM Libya programme officer Mariam Khokhar.
(Source: International Organization for Migration)
