Beirut, Lebanon – For the past decade, Sawa For Development and Aid has been delivering evening iftar meals for about 4,000 families breaking the daily fast during Ramadan in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
But this year the NGO’s busy kitchen has had to work non-stop, cooking for at least 7,000 Syrian refugee and Lebanese families.
“This year is a bit different,” Doha Adi, the NGO’s programmes manager, told Al Jazeera with a sigh.
“We’re providing hot meals for areas far from our kitchen [in the Bekaa Valley], delivering food parcels to homes in Beirut and Tripoli – we never thought we’d ever have to intervene in Beirut,” she said.