Sison Inspects USAID Projects in Beqaa

U.S. Chargé d”Affaires Michele Sison and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Lebanon Director Raouf Youssef on Wednesday inaugurated two USAID-funded projects and visited another project in Zahle.

 

U.S. Government funding through USAID supports an orphanage, an organic products sales center and a solid waste treatment facility, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

 

While visiting the organic products sales center in Zahle, the first of its kind in Lebanon, Sison inspected the production facilities and sales center.

 

The center is affiliated with Lebanon”s first organic cooperative, BioCoop Lubnan, and benefits more than 120 farmers, who have increased their incomes by 30%. Working in partnership with World Vision Lebanon, USAID provided the center with $64,000, the statement added.

 

Sison inaugurated the Zahle 3.9-million dollar solid waste treatment facility, which would benefit twenty-six surrounding municipalities.

 

In partnership with the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF), this USAID project increased the facility”s treatment capacity from 130 tons to 300 tons per day through rehabilitation and expansion, the statement noted.

 

The project reduces the risk of polluting the Litani River. Recycling will take place at the facility for the first time in Lebanon; and, sixty community members will be employed.

 

At the Zahle Infant Welfare Society orphanage, Sison met with the twenty-seven member staff and some of the children.

 

The orphanage supports girls aged five to sixteen; there are one hundred boarding students and thirty commuting students per year from throughout the Beqaa valley, according to the statement.

 

Visiting the Mudeirej Bridge 30-million dollar reconstruction project was also on Sison”s trip itinerary.