The woman using AI to bring aid to civilians in war-torn Lebanon

Last fall, amid the conflict in Lebanon, Hania Zatari, a mechanical engineer working at the Lebanese Ministry of Industry, put her professional skills to use. Hailing from Sidon in southern Lebanon, she created a chatbot on WhatsApp to streamline the process of obtaining much-needed aid.

"They lost their homes, their savings, their jobs, everything they had built," said Hania, referring to those displaced by the war. On September 23, Israel significantly escalated its offensive against Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, following an increase in clashes since Hezbollah's attacks on Israel in October 2023.

According to the Lebanese government, at least 492 people have died in the deadliest conflict in nearly 20 years. Thousands of families fled to Sidon after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacked what it claimed were 1,600 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon. Hania stated that many displaced people sought shelter in schools and other public buildings, but many others fleeing their homes were forced to rent elsewhere or stay with family. She wanted to help those who were not directly receiving government support.

Hania used her programming skills to create "Aid Bot" to bridge the gap between aid needs and supply. This Aid Bot is a chatbot, an AI system designed to communicate with users online, connected to WhatsApp. It is programmed to ask simple questions about the type of aid people need, along with their name and location. This information is then recorded in a Google spreadsheet, which Hania and her team of unpaid volunteers, consisting of friends and family, access to distribute aid such as food, blankets, mattresses, medicine, and clothing.

Hania built the bot in her spare time using the website Callbell.eu, which is typically used by businesses to interact with customers on Meta platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. She explained that the bot is still in use today, improving the efficiency of aid distribution by reducing the time she spent responding to aid requests through WhatsApp. "I don't really need to know their names. I just need to know where they are so I can arrange the delivery," she said.

For example, if someone requests baby formula, Hania said the bot asks the baby's age and the quantity needed so she and her team can provide it. She said the project is funded by donations from Lebanese people living abroad. She created a publicly available dashboard to track the project's spending and the amount of aid she and her team have distributed. As of this writing, they have distributed 78 food packages (each serving 5 or 10 people), 900 mattresses, and 323 blankets to families in Sidon and other parts of Lebanon.

Last October, 47-year-old Haldoun Abbas and his family fled their home in Najariyeh after receiving a call from the Israeli Defense Forces urging them to leave for their own safety. Seventeen people, ranging in age from 9 to 78, slept in a rented three-bedroom apartment in Sidon. Haldoun said he, his wife, and their children, along with his brother's family, slept on mattresses they requested using the Aid Bot in the apartment hallway. They also requested blankets, food, and cleaning supplies.

Unlike his neighbors, he could not return home. Eleven days later, his home was destroyed in a confirmed Israeli attack. The IDF told the BBC they "attacked a terror infrastructure." When we presented this accusation to Haldoun, he denied any connection to Hezbollah or any other party. "This is not the first time Sidon has opened its doors to displaced people," Hania explained, referring to the influx of people into the city. Sidon has long been known for welcoming internally displaced people from the Lebanon-Israel border.

The recent conflict began in October 2023, when the war between Israel and Hamas spilled over into Lebanon, with Hamas ally Hezbollah launching rockets into Israel in support of Gaza. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said nearly 4,000 people have died and over one million have been displaced. The ministry did not specify how many of these were civilians or combatants. In Israel, about 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel, and authorities say more than 80 soldiers and 47 civilians have died.

A ceasefire was reached between Israel and Lebanon last November. Although there have been some minor clashes, the agreement has largely held. But locals say the supply of aid has not improved. The international NGO Islamic Relief told the BBC that "the conflict, destruction, and evacuation orders have exacerbated the ongoing displacement in Lebanon, making it difficult to assess and meet people's needs in a constantly changing situation."

But it's not just the war that is hindering aid distribution. Bilal Merhi, a volunteer working with Hania, said many of the problems they face are due to the "high demand but short supply" of aid. He blames this on the severe economic turmoil that has plagued the country since 2019, meaning the Lebanese government has had to rely heavily on funding from creditors and aid organizations to obtain supplies. But even NGOs are feeling the strain. UNICEF's Lebanon office said they "continue to face a huge funding gap" with only 20% of the required funds, meaning the charity is unable to support families when they need it most.

In a country ravaged by financial woes and war, can this Aid Bot make a tangible difference? It's the first time John Bryant, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute, has heard of a chatbot being used in this way in the humanitarian sector. He said the cultural context in which it is used is commendable. That is, it understands "the channels that people use to talk to each other and communicates with them in their own language." However, he is unsure of its scalability, as what works in Lebanon may not easily be replicated elsewhere in the world.

"Technology often offers a standard, one-size-fits-all approach," he said. "It is the local designers, the local translators, the trusted human communicators, and the elements within the system that elevate digital tools into something useful." The Aid Bot may not provide a solution to all of Lebanon's problems, but for the families using it, it makes life a little easier.