Day 1: TRAVELLING TO LEBANON

I was so excited to finally begin my deployment journey with Salam Charity that I had been fundraising for during the last month. I felt nervous about meeting the group but as soon as I arrived at London Heathrow Airport at the meeting point, I was kindly welcomed by the staff deployment lead and introduced to the rest of the team which made me feel at ease.

I was surprised with how well everyone was getting along with each other having just met and everyone was very friendly. It helped that we were all in the same shoes not having done something like this before, but the Salam Charity staff reassured us and kept us calm and also kept us entertained with the telling of their stories from previous deployments!

I felt very safe and comfortable to be travelling out with them ahead of this long trip. Everything went so smoothly as we had already been given a Zoom briefing ahead of travel so were ready and had everything prepared to go.

During the flight and at the airport, we would constantly be checked upon and asked if we needed anything and upon reaching Lebanon, we were greeted by the charity partner organisation and the minibus ready to take us to the accommodation! It was so thoughtful finding a lovely welcome note and sweets on our beds upon arrival.

We all checked into our rooms, ate something, and went to bed after a long day of travel to get some well-deserved sleep ready ahead of the first day on the ground!

Day 2: BEKAA, LEBANON

The day began with a meeting in the conference room in our accommodation with our partners on the ground where we volunteers were introduced to the projects and the itinerary for the week. We also had some icebreaker activities to begin with to get to know each other better which was fun and helped me feel more relaxed as the group were very friendly and the staff were also very kind and made me feel comfortable. We had a briefing about safety, ethics and responsibilities which also helped us feel more aware, more prepared, and ready to head out.

It was a very hot day, and we first set off to our very first distributions in the camps nearby. Each family received two food parcel boxes and 2 bags of bread as part of our food security project. We then had our first family visits in the camp where the group would be split into teams with an allocated staff member who was an Arabic speaker to go into separate tents and carry out interviews, listen to stories and ask questions. This was the most eye-opening part of the first day and really taught me a lot about the refugee crisis and why aid work here in Lebanon is so important.

Although the first day was not as busy, upon arriving back to our accommodation we all went to the conference room and had a very important reflection session on the day and went around the room listening to what everybody had learnt that day and what really stuck with them. We also discussed the family situations of the tent visits we had carried out and discussed the best way to help them, whether it was raising emergency funds for sponsorship or emergency medical aid.

This part of the day was something I really liked as it made me feel seen, heard, and able to comfortably share my thoughts and feelings in a safe space.

Day 3: BEKAA, LEBANON

Today began with a milk and nappies distribution in one of the camps where 50 mixed ethnic beneficiaries of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian heritage received 3 bags of nappies and 3 tubs of milk each.

We also had the chance to listen to them speak and ask questions about the situation of living amongst the economic crisis and why things are becoming so unaffordable. Following this, we did more food parcel and bread bag distributions in another camp followed by more family visits in people’s tents.

During the evening, there was a hygiene kits distribution for both men and women. I was very impressed with this because not only was it a distribution, but it also consisted of an educational session for the beneficiaries on hygiene, puberty and other taboo subjects within the Arab culture and community.

After a busy day, we headed with the group to dinner in the evening at the Salam community kitchen where we had a delicious selection of Lebanese food before heading back to our accommodation ready to begin our reflection session in the conference room.

Day 4: AARSAL, LEBANON

Today was a very busy day where we had an earlier start than usual as we were heading to Aarsal which is just by the Lebanese Syrian border to distribute aid. We were told that the journey would take us about 1.5 hours there and back from where we were.

As Aarsal is in a mountainous region in Lebanon and is so far out, I realised that it was a much more deprived area, and this stresses the importance of our work and distributing aid there. We visited a few camps around the area where we distributed food parcels to families and also carried out more family visits in tents.

We also had a winter shoe distribution in camps for children ahead of the harsh winter ahead. It was so heart-warming seeing the smiles on their faces as we noticed a lot of children did not have adequate footwear at all, if any.

Day 5: BEQAA, LEBANON

Today was a bit different and I was excited as it was more hands-on as we were visiting the bakery and community kitchen to cook hot meals ourselves to hand deliver in the camps.

First, we made a visit to the bakery and learnt the process of producing 700 bread bags which are distributed daily in refugee camps. Following this, we went to the kitchen and helped prepare 200 hot meals which was my favourite part!

We prepared soup, chicken, and rice, Lebanese Fattoush and even a chocolate coconut dessert which were absolutely delicious! We even got to taste some ourselves. After this, we distributed all the hot meals and bread bags in the camps before heading to oversee Salam Charity’s tent rehabilitation project. We managed to as teams renovate 6 damaged tents ahead of the harsh winter ahead to make sure that the shelter was safe and secure.

We ended the day with a meeting in Al-Awde camp with the beneficiaries of Salam’s Tuk Tuk project which was very inspiring as it is an amazing sustainable project helping break the cycle of poverty.

Day 6: BEQAA, LEBANON

It was our fifth and final day on the ground and I couldn’t help but look back at how fast the time has gone!

Nevertheless, I was going to make the most out of it and today was a very special day. We had the orphan fun day lined up where we had various activities for the kids as well as gift distributions, shoe distributions and back to school happiness kit distributions.

It was a day of smiles, entertaining activities, and fun! We also looked into orphan sponsorships on this day and managed to get every single orphan out of the 50 in the room sponsored Alhamdullilah! It was a beautiful ending to the deployment.

We ate dinner with the orphans at the fun day and returned to the conference room for our final reflection session night. We all shared our takeaways from this deployment experience and reflected on the lessons we had learnt. It was a very intimate discussion that left me feeling very inspired and the whole experience felt incredibly rewardable.

The staff kindly held a certificate ceremony for us congratulating each and every single one of us on being a part of this experience which was also very thoughtful! It really is the little things!

Day 7: RETURN TO THE UK

The deployment had come to an end, and I just couldn’t believe how I travelled with a group of strangers and left as a family.

We all got on so well and made the best memories together. I felt very sad to be leaving but so grateful for such an incredible experience.

From the very moment I signed up to the moment I left, it was all perfectly organised, and I couldn’t have asked to go with a better group of people and members of staff at Salam Charity who made it so special! As is the case with many volunteers after being out on deployment once and returning another, I shall also be back for another InshaAllah!