STORY: :: A non-profit soup kitchen scrambles to help Lebanese displaced due to Israeli airstrikes
:: Beirut, Lebanon
:: May Ayash, Professional chef
“We are all trying our hardest to make a little bit of a difference and to help out. It’s like the least we can do and unfortunately we are used to this.”
:: September 26, 2024
:: Josephine Abu Abdo, Co-founder of Nation Station
“The challenge is that we can’t keep up. We feel like we are just a drop in the ocean. I mean, 700 (meals), you feel like it’s not a lot. We are distributing 700 (meals) and then we hear that there are 1,000 people in need. We are not able to. We are at maximum capacity in the kitchen. We feel like we haven’t done anything, that’s the hard part but at the same time, at least we are able to cover even if 1% of the needs.”
“We are starting to receive help from all over Lebanon, and to be able to expand our capacity to be able to cook. We wished that we didn’t have to do this. This is the basic duty that we must carry out for our brothers and sisters, the displaced.”
The voluntary organisation, located in the Geitawi neighbourhood, has increased its meals as an emergency response since Tuesday (September 24), distributing them to different schools used as shelters.
The organisation prepares 700 meals a day and hopes to increase this number as more help is offered.
Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have fled their homes, leaving large areas largely deserted, and Israel has declared returning evacuees to their homes as one of its war aims.
Israeli strikes over the past week have hit hundreds of targets in southern Lebanon and much deeper into the country, killing more than 600 people.
