Ministry of the Displaced and The Central Fund of the Displaced

The Lebanese Government established the Ministry of the Displaced and the Central Fund for the Displaced (CFD) in 1993. The aim has been to support the social and economic conditions (finance housing and rebuilding projects, support reconciliation initiatives, etc.) for Lebanese who have been displaced during and after the civil war to help them return to their abandoned houses and villages in all Lebanese regions. The Ministry and the CFD provide funding and subsidised loans in the form of compensations for victims of displacement to restore or rebuild their homes and to facilitate their return. Although the Ministry was established as a temporary body to compensate victims of the civil war, it has been supporting victims of post-war armed conflicts and Israeli invasions including that of 1996 and 2006. Reconciliation in Brih: With the creation of the Ministry of Displacement a reconciliation process was launched in Mount Lebanon, sponsored by political and religious leaders. It followed the upsurge of a long-term conflict between residing and displaced communities of the same village over land properties, interpreted as an extension of the legacy of the Civil War. The main challenge was to build trust between the ministerial committee and the communities in Brih, one of the last villages that witnessed the return of its Christian community. As part of the reconciliation process, an event was organised in 2014 and hosted prominent political and religious leaders including former President Suleiman, PSP leader Walid Jumblat, Patriarch Rahi, Sheikh Na’em Hassan, and Druze and Christian families from Brih. The project is still ongoing, and the last event in 2016 featured an inauguration of two churches in the village in efforts to consecrate the return of displaced Christians.