Première Urgence Internationale, a European Union Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis (EUTF Syria) partner, held on December 2019 a successful event to launch “Making it work – Refugees in the Land of the Cedars”, a comic book about the daily life of Syrian refugees and vulnerable people in Lebanon. Written by Wilfrid Lupano and illustrated by Rémi Zaârour (Pozla), the book will be published in France in Spring 2020.

An exhibition took place from 5 to 30 December 2019 in the Espace Niemeyer at Paris. It showed the original comic book strips, boards, stickers, banners with illustration and explanation about the comic book and on the Syrian crisis, photos of Lebanon (by the photographer Edouard Elias) and photos and video of the visit of the authors in Lebanon. About 400 persons visited the exhibition.

Since its establishment in December 2014, an increasing share of the EU’s non-humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees and their host countries is provided through the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the ‘Madad’ Fund. With contributions and pledges from 22 EU Member States and Turkey, amounting now to €200 million, and contributions from various EU instruments, the Fund has reached a total volume of over €1.8 billion to date.

The main objective of the Fund is to foster more self-reliance of refugees, helping them thrive, not just survive, by bridging the funding gap and humanitarian-development nexus. At the same time, the Fund assists the countries and communities hosting the refugees in coping with the additional economic and social burden of the crisis.

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EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis