Hello everyone, and welcome to Money, Power, Health. 

All three themes very much play into the health and wellbeing of the people of Lebanon, which has been assailed by a multi-pronged crisis for the past few years. Lebanon hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, the largest number of refugees per capita of any country, and has experienced a profound combination of socioeconomic turndown and COVID-19 pandemic since 2019, in addition to the devastating port of Beirut explosion in 2020. 

This week, I will be speaking to Judy Makhoul. Judy is professor of Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and has a had a rich and varied career spanning academic work on disaster relief, displaced population and commercial determinants of heallth, but also work with Save the Children in Lebanon.

In this conversation we cover how she became interested in these areas, her work and life in Beirut, and her reflections on conducting research and teaching in the complex, challenging circumstances of Beirut in the light of the civil war, the Syrian war, and the 2020 explosion. Her research and publications have focused on war affected populations such as internally displaced families of the Lebanese civil war, border crossing refugee populations, (Palestinian and Iraqi refugees) qualitative research and community based research and research ethics in the Arab region. 

You can find more about her research here: https://tinyurl.com/ycyvzsvc

And the work of the GECI-PH network here, coordinated by Rima Nakkash and Melissa Mialon: https://www.aub.edu.lb/fhs/Pages/GECI.aspx

Link to Daniel Maani’s music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GDF0XnCn78nce0gesJoC7