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Refugee, Lebanese women forge friendships

A project to produce mouneh, the traditional processing of vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs into jarred preserves, is bringing Lebanese women together with Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
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It is a common belief that food brings people together. Inside a traditional Lebanese two-story stone house in Falougha, a village in the north of Lebanon, there is a kitchen that is usually filled with women pickling fruits and vegetables. At a glance, they could be mistaken for an extended family preparing jars of food together for winter storage. It is only when you speak to them that you realize they are from different countries and cities from Raqqa to Mosul.

This diverse kitchen, called the House of Mouneh, is a project created by the civil campaign Lebanese for Refugees and funded by the US Embassy that aims to build bridges between the people of Lebanon and refugees in the country. "Mouneh," from the Arabic for “to store,” is the tradition of preserving vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs and more in jars. Proving true the adage that change begins at home, this group of Lebanese, Iraqi and Syrian women who started as strangers brought together to turn the tradition of making mouneh into a livelihood now consider themselves family.

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