Chronology

1998

1. January
2. February
3. March
4. June
5. July
6. August
7. October
8. November

1. December

   • 5 December 98:
     Through its activities in public health, agriculture, culture, and education, the United Nations Volunteers program aims to promote the spirit of voluntarism.
     Volunteers are employed in programs in three sectors: urban management, environmental management and preventive and restorative development.
     Among the numerous other projects for which the UNV is responsible are an integrated environment management system, a special education program for disturbed children called the First Step Together Association, and the socio-economic rehabilitation of the displaced in Damour-where the UNV center of operations is located- and surrounding villages.
     The project pertaining to the return of the displaced focuses primarily on 174 villages in the Chouf, Aley, and Baabda areas.
     The first phase of the project, which began in 1994 and ended this year, involved planning and data collection. It is the "executive phase", offering the displaced direct support, daily contact, and assistance in order to start urgent projects. As a matter of fact, the project breaks down into six sectors-economics, educational, agricultural, health, social, and community.

   • 28 December 1998:
     A Lebanese man and two Syrian workers were killed and another Syrian injured in Tripoli when the building they lived in collapsed.
     Another security source put the number of dead at four, saying another, unidentified body was also found in the rubble.
     The families of the dead workers had a lucky escape, being out at the time of the incident, but 16 other people had to be rescued by troops and first aid workers.
     North Lebanon Governor Khalil Hindi, who inspected the site, said the building was one of several previously deemed by the authorities as unfit habitation.
     Heavy rains over the weekend may have weakened the structure, residents in the area said. The building, they added, was evacuated earlier this year but war-displaced and Syrian migrant workers lived in it illegally.

   back to top