Lebanon
Under the supervision of Karen Ashkouti, SOS Chrétiens d’Orient’s Lebanon Project Manager, and Father Fakhri, priest of the Greek Orthodox parish in Rachaya El Fakhar, the SOSCO Lebanon emergency campaign team distributed food parcels to displaced Lebanese families in the village.
“Today we are in Rachaya El Fakhar, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, and specifically in the warehouse where the food parcels provided by SOS Chrétiens d’Orient donors to the families of the village are stored.
Known for its traditional pottery, Rachaya El Fakhar is located in a sensitive geographical location, close to conflict zones, making it a high-risk area.
The village, which has been directly affected by the clashes, faces significant economic, security and social challenges. It is therefore necessary to provide tangible support to the residents, in particular the distribution of a food parcel to each family as a first step.
At the beginning of October, the warehouse next to the warehouse where we placed about 100 food parcels for the villagers was bombed, and the brave Lebanese loaded the boxes onto trucks and drove to Beirut to distribute them to the beneficiaries.
In fact, the living conditions had become so painful and unbearable that 105 out of 126 families in the village fled towards Beirut.
Immediately, Karen set up the logistics programme for the distribution in Beirut, from turning a vacant clothing store into a warehouse, to making a list of all the villagers in Beirut and initiating the distribution.
Father Fakhri was waiting for us at the distribution point, his face beaming with happiness to see his parishioners again and to give them what will allow them to eat for two weeks. Each food parcel contains: 1kg bulgur, 2kg white beans, 2kg fava beans, 1kg chickpeas, 2kg red lentils, 4 cans of pasta, 1 can of dried milk, 1 bottle of sunflower oil, 3kg rice, 1kg sugar, 5 cans of tuna, 3 packs of cheese, and 1 bag of za’atar, the golden ingredient in Lebanese cuisine.
Next to Father Fakhri, I saw Elie, a Lebanese I met last year, in November 2023 when I visited his village as part of the SOS Chrétiens d’Orient team to distribute donations as well. He is a brave young man who is always ready to help. He answered my questions about the current situation and that it has not changed in a year, except that the Israeli bombardment around his village and the region has intensified dramatically in scale and frequency.
The conflict has caused 50 hectares of olive groves to burn, many roads have been bombed, and only the main axis is left intact to head north, as if an implicit message to evacuate.
Elie told me about his family’s three-generation home, that his grandfather was a very skilled pottery craftsman, and that his family had always been displaced from their village to shelters in the Bekaa region, which were also bombed. But this time both houses are temporarily abandoned and they are all in Beirut. He works in Luxembourg but came urgently to support his family.
On the other side stood an old man, also from the village, but who had not visited for a long time. One of his kidneys is not working, so he needs dialysis three times a week in Beirut.
The conflict caused 50 hectares of olive groves to burn, many roads were bombed, and only the main axis was left intact to head north, a tacit message to evacuate.
Elie told me about his family’s three-generation home, that his grandfather was a very skilled pottery craftsman, and that his family had always been displaced from their village to shelters in the Bekaa region, which were also bombed. But this time both houses are temporarily abandoned and they are all in Beirut. He works in Luxembourg but came urgently to support his family.
On the other side stood an old man, also from the village, but who had not visited for a long time. One of his kidneys is not working, so he needs dialysis three times a week in Beirut.
The Lebanese huddle together and talk with worried faces. One of them says he will return to the village in two days, having secured accommodation for his mother, wife and children here, but he cannot leave his land in the south.’
Let us redouble our prayers more than ever for the war-torn Lebanese and for peace in the Middle East.
With €2,810, you provide food parcels to 105 families in South Lebanon
