Lebanon’s Children Face Hunger, Lost Schooling and Work as Families Reach the Brink

The findings show families cutting essential spending, children going hungry and more young people facing a future with fewer opportunities.

For families across Lebanon, paying for food, a doctor's visit or a child's education has become a struggle that forces painful choices at home. Four in five households are struggling to afford basic necessities, according to UNICEF's new report, An Enduring Nightmare, which describes how conflict is deepening years of economic crisis and taking away the stability children need to grow, learn and feel safe. The findings show families cutting essential spending, children going hungry and more young people facing a future with fewer opportunities.

Families face choices no parent should have to make

More than one in five households surveyed, or 22 per cent, said their children had gone to bed hungry during the previous two weeks, and 31 per cent reported that children had missed needed health care, mainly because their families could not afford it. These figures reveal how financial hardship reaches into the most basic parts of childhood, affecting whether a child eats enough or receives treatment when they need it. Fourteen per cent of households reported at least one child working, more than twice the proportion recorded in January 2025, showing the growing pressure on children to take on responsibilities that should belong to adults.

UNICEF Lebanon Representative Marcoluigi Corsi described children and young people as carrying a burden no child should face, with families pushed to the brink by missed health care, disrupted education, child labour and deep psychological distress. His warning is that these pressures could shape children's lives for years without urgent, sustained support, making the struggle to get through each day a threat to their future.

Conflict leaves children injured and classrooms damaged

Since 2 March 2026, at least 261 children have been killed and 1,056 injured, equivalent to an average of seven children killed or injured every day over six months. An estimated 12 per cent of injured children are now living with a disability, adding lasting care and support needs to the immediate consequences of their injuries. Damage or destruction at some 436 schools has put around 100,000 children at risk of having no classroom, and 86 teachers have been killed or injured, further weakening the education children depend on.

The disruption extends beyond damaged buildings, with 46 per cent of households reporting cuts to education spending and 17 per cent saying their children had stopped attending school. Among children still attending, 29 per cent were unable to learn as expected, often because emotional distress and difficulty concentrating made schoolwork harder. An estimated 770,000 children have experienced psychological distress over the past six months; more than half of households said their children's emotional well-being had worsened, and 63 per cent reported anxiety or nervousness.

Young people see their options narrowing

An earlier UNICEF assessment this year found that only 22 per cent of young people aged 18–25 were in school or university, largely because of financial barriers, and 67 per cent were unemployed at the time of the survey. Those findings describe a difficult path into adulthood, with the cost of continuing education and limited employment leaving young people struggling to access services and build a future in Lebanon.

Since January 2026, UNICEF has intensified its humanitarian response, treating injured children, delivering supplies to shelters and medical facilities, and providing care to displaced families, including support for the national systems and services families rely on. Corsi warned that an entire generation risks carrying the scars of the crisis into adulthood, stressing that Lebanon's recovery depends on protecting children's rights to health care, education, protection and opportunities now.