BAOWERTA, Lebanon – With a view of the picturesque Mediterranean Sea in the distance, the mountainside village of Baowerta seems like an unlikely place for a refugee camp.
But many villages in Lebanon have become host communities for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have poured over the border since the civil war began nearly 30 months ago.
Ayoub Naim is a 41-year-old construction worker and father of four.
He’s now living in Baowerta with his family, his two brothers and their families. There are 18 of them in all living in a two bedroom apartment.
WATCH: See where the Naim family lives as refugees
The United Nations revealed on Tuesday there are now six million people who have been displaced so far by the conflict in Syria — four million internally and two million seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
READ MORE: 1 million children have fled Syria as refugees: UNICEF
Lebanon has taken more refugees than any other country and with a refugee leaving Syria every 15 seconds, the situation could destabilize the country’s already fragile society.
READ MORE: Responsibility to Protect: Does the world have to help Syria?
Naim puts on the brave face of a man who will do anything to support his family, but privately he said he is near the breaking point.
He knows the earliest memories of his two youngest children will likely be of life as refugees.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the Office for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Syria is hemorrhaging an average of almost 5,000 citizens a day across its borders, many of them with little more than the clothes they are wearing, The Associated Press reported.
Canada is involved in the global effort to help people like the Naim family. The Dept. of Foreign Affairs said it has earmarked more than $42 million for groups working with refugees, such as the U.N. World Food Program, the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
To view our ongoing coverage of the crisis in Syria, click here.
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