Feature: Syrian refugees welcome New Year in Lebanon under the snow

The Syrian refugees in Lebanon welcomed the New Year with the snow covering their tents and a freezing temperature.

On the outskirts of the village of Hasbaya, some of the refugee children left their tents and started throwing snow balls in an effort to speed up their blood flow and feel a little warmth.

Afaf, mother of 10 children, was searching for wood sticks used as firewood. "We spent all the New Year eve shivering from the cold and watching the snow falling heavily on the tents in our camp. We were wondering which tent would fall first," she told Xinhua.

Despite the harsh situation, Afaf still thanked God for keeping her alive to raise up her children who lost their father as the Islamic State militants shelled their home town three years ago.

Salwa al-Ali, displaced from Damascus neighborhoods, told Xinhua that the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is providing her with 105 U.S. dollars per month, but all other aids have been cut including the heating fuel coupons and food coupons."

She explained "all what was left for me is to gather wood sticks and the dry trees branches from the nearby plains to use as firewood."

"The price of one missile could feed and warm up our entire camp for one year," she said.

Ahmed al-Sahri, displaced from Aleppo, and his three children did not sleep all the New Year eve. Every half an hour, they had to remove the snow that was accumulating on the roof of their tent.

"I was afraid that the tent would fall because of the heavy snow, so we had to fight for our survival as other refugees did," she said.

According to the UNHCR, more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees have fled their war-torn country to Lebanon since the war began in March 2011.

The 2015 annual report on Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, which was released last week, said about 70 percent of the refugees in Lebanon are now living below the extreme poverty line of 3.84 U.S. dollars per day.

Refugee families have become more reliant on food vouchers than they were in 2014. Limited resources have forced more than half of the surveyed refugee families, which doubles the number of last year, to spend less than expected to cover their most basic survival needs, the report said. Endit