Back to Contents In its Protection Monitoring Report for the last quarter of the year 2021, UNRWA reported that:     “3. Child Protection A large majority of focal points considered children felt either not safe at all or faced some safety concerns, with children’s feelings of safety said to be similar to during quarter three. They attributed this to the economic situation and parents’ focus on survival. However, the return to school was said to have a positive impact generally, leading to children spending less time on the streets and being less engaged in child labour.                     [ ...] Despite the return to school, the most frequently reported child protection concerns continued to be child labour, violence against children and street-connected children. Most focal points considered all groups were equally affected. Focal points in Tyre highlighted the impact of the Bourj Shemali explosion and subsequent shootings on children’s mental health and wellbeing, and in Ein El HIlweh they described the lasting effects on children of the September shootings and the murder outside the school. The number of focal points reporting that they were aware of children being physically harmed was similar in quarter four to quarter three, with 11 reporting that they were aware of children being injured as a result of violence and four reporting being aware of child victims of sexual abuse. Almost half focal points had heard of substance use or dealing among children at least once in the last month, and while generally focal points reported that children were working less, in Tyre they reported that children were increasingly involved in exchanging money and in the Beqaa that families were sending children to work to support them financially. Boys in the north were singled out as being less safe than girls because girls do not often leave the camps, whereas boys are unsafe when doing so. Focal points in Tyre indicated that there had been an increase in child sexual harassment in camps during the quarter and that too often perpetrators are well-connected, undermining accountability mechanisms. The economic situation, combined with ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions, continued to impact children’s wellbeing. Focal points explained children had no toys, could no longer play games such as football and expressed worry they were not having a typical childhood. In NLA, focal points described the example of a student wrapping his shoes with nylon bags to prevent the rain from reaching his feet as illustrative of the struggles families are facing. A nation-wide survey on nutrition found that four percent of Palestinian refugee children suffered from wasting the most immediate, visible and life-threatening form of malnutrition where children become too thin and their immune systems are weak – compared to 1.8 percent of Lebanese and 2.4 per cent of Syrians.17 Across areas, food insecurity was a rising concern for children, reported to contribute to feelings of unsafety among children in CLA and progressively emphasised in areas such as Saida.” (Source: UNRWA, “UNRWA Protection Monitoring Report – Quarter Four 2021”, 6 April 2022, pp. 6-7-8) 7. Child protection 77