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Showing posts with the label lebanon

Living in the dark as a Palestinian Refugee

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 It's no surprise that in country in as much financial difficulty as Lebanon, that the people who have the least amount of rights have the least amount of anything, including basics such as safe street lighting and regular power. It's not possible to just simply step out of your front and walk safely to friends, or relatives or the shops at night. Even when there is power (which is sporadic and infrequent) there are very few areas of the alleyways and passages that are well lit.  If you are lucky you will pass a house that has left a light outside, that light will have been provided for by the house owner at their own expense. As you can see from the video filmed by one of our team on the camp of Ein Il Helweh, you are taking a risk just by going out after it gets dark.  Remember to take a torch We have many things we would like to do on the camp, help sort the refuse out, power, health issues but one of the simple things we could do is to help provide decent lighting for...

Drowning in a Sea of Rubbish

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 The refuse problem has always been an issue on the Palestinian Refugee camps, but recently it's been getting worse and worse. If you step outside the camps and into Lebanon itself you will see that there is a general issue with rubbish, there are very few collections and it really does pile up everywhere, but on the camps, there is no where else for it to go so it is piling up and is starting to cause massive health risks.  The smell is unbearable, the piles are drawing pests and swarms of insects and flies and it won't be long until there is a serious health problem on the camps. UNRWA does what it can but they seem oblivious to what is going on regarding this serious issue.  An incinerator on the camps would be ideal, not only would it deal with the waste issue but it would generate much needed electricity to meet the shortfall on the camps and make them more self sufficient.  This video gives you more of an impression as to what the actuality is on the camps. Cou...

Seventy Years of Palestinian Women's Resistance

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Sobhia Krayem I would like to introduce you to one of the faces of the Palestinian women’s struggle, the beautiful ambassador of Palestinian heritage, Sobhia Krayem. Her family are originally from Saffuriyya in the District of Nazareth, but she was born in Lebanon 70 years ago, a few years after her family were forcibly expelled from Palestine by the Zionist occupation forces during the Nakbah. She is a strong woman who has fought and suffered due to the daily rules of the patriarchal society, the forced Palestinian displacement, the Zionist invasion of Lebanon in 1982, racism and the Lebanese civil war. Palestinian Embroidery However, this did not prevent her from retraining and carrying out various activities. After the Israelis invaded Lebanon, there was a time where she with her husband hosted a big number of people from all different nationalities and religions and provided them a shelter and flour to cook, one of the people who came for shelter, was Naji Al-Ali the Palestinian ...

Heart break of a witness.

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Ms. Hayat Balha Abu Shmeis, met by chance with Haji Salim Muhammad Salim Abu Junaid, from the town of Al-Khayriyah, Jaffa, where he was born in 1936. During this meeting, this witness to the Palestinian Nakba spoke heartily about his memories in his village, and when he was displaced from it. He talks about the British army, before its withdrawal in 1948 and how they gave their weapons to the Jewish gangs such as the Haganana, the Irgun Stern, and trained them in 1947. Haj Salim described the street of Jamal Pasha as it was beautiful and one of the most beautiful streets in the Middle East at that time. It had Eucalyptus trees lining both sides of the street, and in the middle, there was an island of water.  He added that he was working for Yasser Arafat as a translator to explain to foreigners about the Palestinian Catastrophe /Nakba. Since the promise of the Balfour, who promised to the Jews that he would make a government for them in Palestine. He recounts in his spe...

Palestinian Pumpkin pudding recipe.

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I thought I would like to enjoy the bargains of the Halloween pumpkins that are now on sale, they are very cheap just 50P the price compared to the price before Halloween, and they are still juicy and fresh. With my mum’s tasty pumpkin jam, she learnt the recipe from her late grandmother who my mum admired loads. This beautiful lady not only had a strong personality, but she was also gorgeous and had beautiful blue eyes. She was born in the north of   Palestine, like her ancestors in the village of Saffuriya in central Galilee, this village was known in the Ancient Greece as   Diocaesaraea and during the Crusades, le Saforie . This village lying on top of a mountain was believed to be the birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus, and where her mother Saint Anna  resided, who was mentioned in the Quran was mentioned  as "the wife of saint Joachim Imran”. Why they did not use her name in the Quran is a mystery. Wow what we started with Pumpkin jam, has then gone to...