Al-Bayyad, Lebanon - February 2007 — Atef Selman is head of the municipal council of Al-Bayyad, a village in the hills of central southern Lebanon. With other council members, he was responsible for meeting with the several NGOs that arrived immediately after the war in July destroyed much of the village.

“We met with many different organizations,” said Selman, “but IRD was the only one that came back, the only one to actually help.”

The village received funding for small-scale infrastructure rebuilding through the UK Department for International Development-funded IRD emergency livelihood recovery project in southern Lebanon. The project helps people from 10 villages in the region recover from the July war by providing cash for work, farming supplies, small business grants, and vocational training.

For immediate assistance, IRD met with community leaders like Selman and the municipal council to identify projects that would help the smaller communities rebuild essential public works such as roads and water and drainage systems. IRD paid cash for unskilled employee labor, purchased the raw materials from local suppliers, and provided technical assistance and oversight. The local communities identified project needs and beneficiaries, contracted the projects, and paid for skilled labor. In total, IRD disbursed more than $100,000 to cash for work projects in southern Lebanon.

In Al-Bayyad, IRD was finishing the construction of a retaining wall that helped support the town’s main road. Skilled laborers were mixing the mortar, then cutting and placing the stones for the wall. Unskilled laborers received cash for digging the base and moving stones for placement. The families in houses next to the road had donated land so it could be widened, and would provide food and drinks to the workers as needed. The total cost of the project rebuilding the wall and the road would exceed $4,000, of which the community had contributed more than half.

“This road is the lifeline for our community,” said Selman. “That is why we are willing to give so much, why we have been so involved in the project from the beginning, and why we are so glad for the opportunity to work with IRD.”