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miraculous Lebanon, a new delivery on its way...
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The situation in Lebanon is becoming more dystopian by the hour. Residential buildings are bombed in full view of the world, villages on the southern border are flattened, and on Wednesday Israel bombed Tyre, a UNESCO world heritage site in south Lebanon. To add to this, a large forest fire has been burning in an area north of Beirut for 3 days.
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Those who continue to live and work in Beirut do so under the sound of constant drone surveillance, humiliating in itself but bringing with it the fear of a missile strike after a cursory evacuation warning.
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Without support from the government, grassroots organisations staffed by Lebanese volunteers are cooking, delivering meals, providing mattresses and blankets well aware that this is feasible for weeks but not months. Winter will be here soon, and how more than one million forcibly displaced people will be accommodated into public infrastructure is unclear.
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With this in mind, we are incredibly lucky that our suppliers have been working hard to ensure that our order arrives under these crazy conditions.
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za'atar & oregano
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"We're safe for now so we keep working", said Yasmina from Bassatin Baanoub. Nothing but calmness from our producers who have been getting official permits to export, stamps from ministries and driving around Beirut not knowing where the next strike will be.
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Making sure these ingredients are available to us has been an incredibly generous act.
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photo: Bassatin Baanoub packets of za'atar mix & oregano
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DHL, working from the airport where Middle East Airline pilots and crew still fly out of Lebanon, continue to provide a professional service. As the photograph shows, the fact that the airport is still working given the proximity of Israel's nightly destruction of Beirut's southern suburbs, is extraordinary.
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photo: by Matthieu Karam of Beirut airport Oct 20th.
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where shorkk's donations go...
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The needs are acute in Lebanon. We have donated to 3 organisations with your help.
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We sent £309 ($400) to Tahaddi, who made our saffron & tote bag as well as the apron. If you'd like to find out more about the work they do, we've added their donation page.
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photo: Catherine Mourtada co founder of Tahaddi
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20% of the families from the Tahaddi community remain in their homes near the airport. Some children come to the centre each day for something to do.
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Bristol bakery helping Beirut...
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They donated all of the proceeds, which we divided between 2 organisations. Together with our donation we transferred £901.00 to Nation Station, a community kitchen who provide thousands of meals each day in Beirut. We were also able to send £706 to Najdeh Association
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Our friend at Najdeh Association has been buying mattresses & blankets for those forcibly displaced from the south who initially were housed in Shatila camp, but many have had to leave and are housed in a UN school.
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Tyre/Sour
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On Wednesday morning a residential area next to the World Heritage site in Tyre/Sour, protected by 2 UNESCO conventions, was bombed soon after an evacuation notice had been issued.
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Incidentally, the name of the variety of olives called "souri", comes from the name of the port city. The Phoenicians shipped olive trees to the west from Sour/Tyre, giving Europe the domesticated olive tree. We have a lot to thank the Lebanese for.
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photo: from Biladi NGO's Instagram with permission.
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a savoury breakfast
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A healthy start to a weekend, honouring these beautiful ingredients from Lebanon. A simple flat bread recipe and how to make labneh - comfort food to celebrate all things Lebanese.
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Whiteladies Market Saturday 2 November 8.30am-1pm
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