by Xinhua writer Lin Jianjie
BEIRUT, April 22 (Xinhua) -- For Jana Ftouni, a resident of the southern suburbs of Beirut, fleeing her home during Israeli airstrikes more than a month ago was a desperate attempt to find safety.
But the experience set her on an unexpected path. Days later, she joined a volunteer team preparing meals for displaced people at Raseef, a restaurant in the Hamra district of the Lebanese capital.
Ftouni, a freelance translator, left her home early on March 2 after an Israeli airstrike struck near her home, as Israel launched airstrikes across Lebanon following Hezbollah's rocket fire toward Israel.
On her way to the city proper of Beirut, she saw people along the roadside trying to stop passing cars, hoping for a ride to safety from the missile attacks. "It showed me how much we as a community need to stick together and show solidarity during such tough times," she recalled.
After arriving in Beirut, she rented an apartment with another displaced family. She later heard about the initiative at Raseef from a friend who was helping distribute food to others there, and decided to join them.
Volunteers at the restaurant prepare ingredients, cook and portion in an orderly rhythm, and wait for displaced people to come pick up their food. At the end of each shift, Ftouni takes a few boxes of food home as her "payment."
"The volunteer work allows me to make good use of my time during the war, to do something meaningful," Ftouni said. "We have to pull ourselves together to survive, to cope with the situation."
Rami Salem, owner of Raseef, described the restaurant's staff, volunteers and those they help as a tight-knit community. "People help people, and then more people -- that's how the bonds of community are built," he said.
The restaurant is part of a wider self-mobilized network that provides assistance to those in need during the latest round of conflict.
After hostilities between Lebanon and Israel reignited in early March, grassroots organizations, volunteer groups, community kitchens and individuals sprang back into action. Many of the efforts are rooted in traditions of mutual aid formed during the 2020 Beirut port explosion and the 2023-2024 conflict between Lebanon and Israel.
A 10-minute walk southeast from Raseef leads to Barzakh Bookshop. The bookshop, where customers sit by the window reading or chatting softly, provides up to 2,400 boxed meals a day for the displaced during the conflict.
On the second day of the conflict, Barzakh launched a relief initiative. Khodor Al-Akhdar, the bookshop's operation manager who oversees the effort, said he initially felt confused, noting that less than two years had passed since the last ceasefire. He added that the bookshop launched a crowdfunding link on social media and its staff members did not hesitate to start working again.
"We are doing everything we can," said Al-Akhdar. In addition to food, the bookstore distributes blankets, clothes, hygiene supplies and medicine, among other items, in response to the shifting needs of displaced people.
"The displaced people have the right to return to a normal life, to make plans, to tend their gardens, and to do the things they love," said Al-Akhdar.
According to recent data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since March 2.
A fragile 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect at midnight between Thursday and Friday local time (2100 GMT).
Soon after the ceasefire, large numbers of the displaced began heading home. Yara Sayegh, founder of the group Truth Be Told, said nearly half of the displaced people her organization had been assisting had left shelters for home, but almost all came back later, since "the south is pretty much completely destroyed."
In the basement of Riwaq, a restaurant that partners with the group, there are still piles of relief supplies.
Sayegh said she will continue working, adding that while the need for meals has decreased slightly, the group may focus more on distributing different kinds of medicine to those in need.
