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.
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.
Lebanese for Refugees founder Carol Malouf, who has seen tensions rise between Lebanese citizens and refugees over the year she has been doing her aid work, was looking for a way to bring together host communities and the displaced. “I thought the best way to do it was to create joint projects for sustainable development to empower women so that you help the local economy, buy from the farmers, … employ half Lebanese, half refugees. Sociologically, it creates a bond between the people, and when the women go home, they talk about the other women in a positive sense. You are changing the conversation in the local society.”
The House of Mouneh officially began in November at the Zahr el-Laymoun restaurant, to coincide with Lebanese for Refugees’ one-year anniversary. There, Malouf showcased the civil initiative's work since its founding, including a campaign to provide medicine, blankets, food and other essentials to refugee families in the northern border town of Arsal. The initiative constructed a refugee camp in Wadi Hmeid, on the outskirts of Arsal, and created a social awareness campaign, #WeAreNotInvisible, which strives to bring attention to the displaced in Lebanon.
