In Lebanon, migrants help each other overcome war

There are seven of them around a table, all volunteers, from different countries.

Their hands covered in plastic gloves, a charlotte on their heads, they prepare croissants which will be distributed free of charge to poor migrant workers.

Spread the dough. Cover with butter.

Fill the gaps with a little water. Roll up the croissant. And start again.

On the walls of this small kitchen, shelves filled with sauces and cans.

After the croissants, you will have to make rice fritters and cook green beans.

The organization “Tres Marias”, located in the suburbs of Beirut, distributes around 150 hot meals per day to displaced people or people in need.

Women, some with children, come to the center and leave with plastic bags filled with basic products, such as bread or toothpaste.

“We can’t just tell them ‘sorry, we don’t have anything to cook’,” explains Myra Aragon, 52, from the Philippines, head of this charity.

“We always have to find a way to make it happen.”

When the war between Hezbollah and Israel broke out on the night of March 2, she remembers receiving her first calls requesting help “as early as 3 a.m.”.

At the Reman center in Beirut, the atmosphere is just as studious.

Women behind their sewing machines make blankets which will be distributed to families, while the war has displaced more than a million people.

A little further on, a man is stacking mattresses.

The center helps nearly 1,500 people, mainly migrants from African countries such as Ethiopia, Benin and Kenya, but also some Lebanese who have lost their homes.

“If we don’t do it, no one will do it for us,” assures Viany de Marceau, a 33-year-old Cameroonian and director of the site.

The young woman has many, many days. “Even at night, we are busy,” she assures us, “the phone never stops ringing.”

But providing help to migrants in need “gives me a form of happiness”, she confides.