As conflict in the Middle East continues, an organisation in Beirut, Lebanon, which started as a charity supermarket for the elderly, is now feeding thousands. It’s largely supported by donations from the Lebanese diaspora, including those from Australia. Our Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran spoke to one of the founders.
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00:00This is a charity organization that started in 2019, it was set up by me and my husband
00:09because we just wanted to give a small supermarket for the elders who don't have any retirement
00:14pensions in Lebanon, knowing that elders represent 11% of the total population, which is the
00:19highest number in the entire Middle East and North Africa.
00:22So we started with this small concept and nine months later, in 2019, the revolution
00:27started and all of a sudden we found ourselves completely blown away and things went out
00:32of proportion.
00:33So we had to transform Betel Baraka from a retirement pension, if you want support system
00:39into an emergency relief organization.
00:42And this is when, when the war started, we were able to support immediately.
00:47So the pressure is having to constantly adapt to something new because you know what, every
00:53person works in his or her own field of expertise.
00:59No one is capable of working on so many fields.
01:02So today the crises in Lebanon are the following.
01:05You have food shortage, you have medicine shortage, you have housing shortage, and this
01:12has been going on for five years now since the revolution.
01:16Not that the revolution caused it, on the contrary, the revolution was just to open
01:20the eyes of everyone.
01:22And then you have the biggest problem, which is education.
01:25People don't have access to their funds in order to pay their tuition fees.
01:29So what happened with the war?
01:32First of all, people got displaced, 1.2 million.
01:35We all know this number, we've heard it so many times, but what does it actually mean?
01:391.2 million were displaced when the war started, but then they went back home.
01:45Most of them found no homes to come back to.
01:48So now all the 973 public schools that were transformed into shelters are now empty.
01:55And people went back to the south, to the Bekaa, to Dahye, but the people from the south
02:00and the Bekaa particularly are farmers and they're small producers.
02:04So these are people of the land who never, never ask for help because these are people
02:09with dignity.
02:11But during the war, we were capable of managing things in a different way because we registered
02:18ourselves in the governorate of Beirut's emergency department.
02:23And it was a department set up a few days before the actual war.
02:27So we asked the governor to give us 28 schools that were transformed into shelters exclusively
02:33operated by us, by Bet El Baraka.
02:35And there you had more than 20,000 people that we were offering food to on a daily basis,
02:40breakfast, lunch and dinner.
02:42These people are now a bit everywhere, in cars, in shelters within their municipalities,
02:47at relatives, whatever.
02:50But when they were in the schools, we provided mattresses, bedsheets, quilts, pillows, whatever
02:55it took to at least give them some dignity while sleeping.
02:59How difficult was it to sort of ramp up when those services were so gravely needed, particularly
03:06those kitchens that you were running in schools?
03:09That would have had to be a pretty quick operation to get that off the ground.
03:13How difficult was that?
03:15It was terribly difficult.
03:16But the thing is, you know, when you've lived through the August 4, 2020 explosion in the
03:21Beirut port, I think you can live through anything.
03:25The Beirut port explosion, unfortunately, was a learning curve for us to work under
03:29extreme pressure, extreme violence, extreme disorganization and find your way through
03:34and navigate through the challenges.
03:36We receive a lot of funding from private donors in Australia and we're registered in the United
03:40States as well.
03:41It's actually a roller coaster because when the COVID started, it was a peak.
03:46Then it was another peak downwards.
03:49And then after the explosion, again, another peak and two months later, a peak downwards.
03:54Now the peak was, of course, 23 September.
03:57It was fabulous.
03:58I mean, people were mobilized everywhere.
04:02The big problem now is that, of course, when you hear ceasefire, you automatically stop
04:06donating.
04:07But the problem is that the suffering starts now because people are no longer in shelters.
04:14You still have to give them food.
04:15You still have to give them homes.
04:17The need is now bigger than ever, but donations have stopped.
04:21So there is a lot of work.
04:24The Lebanese people are known for this.
04:25We rebound very quickly.
04:28We bounced back very quickly and we're a happy population no matter what, so uncrushable.