Contribution to the Lebanon Solidarity Fund

Lebanon

In September 2024, Israeli attacks expanded from southern Lebanon to the broader country. Alongside large-scale physical destruction, the escalation displaced up to 1.2 million people, compounding an economic crisis already several years deep. For Lebanon’s artists and cultural workers, it meant the loss of lives, livelihoods, and the interruption of practices that in many cases had taken years to build. These conditions eroded Lebanon’s cultural heritage, and positioned those who contributed towards its transmission at serious risk.

With a CER grant of €20,000, Ettijahat - Independent Culture worked in partnership with Action for Hope to deliver direct financial support to 18 workers in the arts and culture sector and their families. The funds met immediate needs, including emergency supplies, temporary shelter, medical assistance, and the spaces recipients needed in order to keep working. The selection was carefully made with cultural diversity and inclusion in mind, ensuring that migrant and refugee artists and those from marginalised groups were represented among the recipients.

This project gave 18 cultural practitioners the resources and stability to persist with their work rather than leave it behind in a time of crisis. Doing so kept their skills, practices, advocacy, and cultural contributions active within Lebanon at a moment when the sector could least afford to lose them.