Watch: Crisis in Lebanon | Webinar

Lebanon has faced many challenges in the last couple of weeks. In times of tragedy and emergency, collaboration is key to providing aid. In the midst of this crisis, people have come together to find ways to reach more people in need. Last week, we gathered around the topic of emergency response in Lebanon with an incredible line up of experts and organizations.

Watch the full conversation between Johanna Mendelson Forman, Maya Terro (Co-founder of Food Blessed), Nasser Jaber (Co-founder of The Migrant Kitchen) and Dalia Tarabay (Co-founder of The People's Central Kitchen), moderated by Paola Pollmeier (Social Gastronomy Movement) on our YouTube channel.

Johanna Mendelson started by giving us the sociopolitical context of Lebanon, making strong remarks about how alarming the country's situation was even before the explosion happened.

Maya Terro shared some very heartfelt words about her journey with FoodBlessed since it started in 2012, the core of which is love in everything they do. Her concerns about the country's struggle resonated strongly with Johanna's points.

Understanding the needs of local communities is one of the many challenges that organizations face when helping from the outside. Anna Hofmann told us about how Cuisine sans frontières always looks for local partners to make sure they are successfully reaching people in need to provide around 300 meals a day.

While collaboration and partnerships have been key in order to give efficient solutions to the crisis, Nasser Jaber and Dalia Tarabay both agreed on how important it is to eventually receive support from larger NGO's.

We are looking forward to continue this conversation in a future webinar.

To our speakers, we thank you for taking the time to share your stories and insights in the middle of this crisis, and being part of a space for visibility and collaboration in such challenging times.