Displaced Lebanese woman bakes 3,000 loaves daily for war-hit community
Fatima Shehadi, displaced from the Bekaa Valley, produces 3,000 loaves a day at a shelter near Beirut. The story illustrates the scale of civilian solidarity during the war.
In an Al Jazeera report, 47-year-old Fatima Shehadi is shown leaving her village in the Bekaa Valley six months ago. Shehadi lives with her husband and four children at a school-based shelter in the Tariq el Jdideh district of southern Beirut. She works there at a community bakery with materials supplied by Caritas Lebanon.
Daily output reaches 3,000 loaves, feeding about 800 families. According to Caritas Lebanon, fourteen similar community bakeries have been set up around Beirut, forming the backbone of the relief operation. Lebanon's Ministry of Social Affairs reports the number of displaced people has reached 1.2 million since the war began, 38 percent of them children.
UNHCR Lebanon representative Ayaki Ito said: 'Fatima's story shows that displaced Lebanese women are active heroes of the relief operation.' The European Union pledged 75 million euros in emergency aid to Lebanon this month, part of which will be channelled to community bakeries through local civil society organisations such as Caritas.
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