Economic crisis and war leave many coping with limited supplies and anxious over fate of loved ones in Gaza
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“We dubbed it the fake kabseh,” says Mariam with a smile, as she stirs a pot of aromatic vegetables in her home in Tyre, southern Lebanon. The young mother of three is busy preparing the dish for iftar.
The main ingredient of kabseh, a Middle Eastern dish made of spiced rice, is chicken.
But, here in Maachouk, an impoverished neighbourhood of Tyre which has long been home to Palestinian refugee families, residents such as Mariam have replaced chicken with flavoured cubes to mimic the taste of meat.
Mariam has also now mastered chicken Maggi-flavoured maklouba, the traditional Palestinian dish usually made with layers of roasted vegetables, meat and seasoned rice.
“Meat has become too expensive, we had to adapt traditional recipes,” she said.
“Inflation has made even basic staples too expensive for us.”
But on the day media visited, she had a special treat to offer her family alongside the “fake kabseh”.
The US-based NGO Anera had provided a box of food for Ramadan, which included jellab, a traditional date syrup, much to the delight of her children. The family had not been able to afford any sweets this Ramadan until then.
Lebanon’s entrenched economic crisis, labelled as one of the worst globally since 1850 by the World Bank, has plunged 80 per cent of the population into poverty, with triple-digit inflation and a shortage of basic commodities.
Against this dire economic backdrop, Mariam is one of many parents struggling to meet their children’s needs. Her one-year-old, Ayana, has Down syndrome and requires special care, food and medicine, most of which the family must cover themselves.
Despite the struggles, the family is grateful for breaking their fast together.
“You see how difficult life is in Lebanon for us, but we say alhamdulillah when we see the horrors in Gaza and children dying under rubble,” said Ayman, the father, who has family in the Palestinian enclave.
The internet connection in Gaza is very poor, but he manages to get in touch once a week. His aunt’s house was destroyed in an Israeli air strike. The family have fled several times to escape the relentless shelling.
“The international community has turned its back on Gaza. How can they stand seeing these children dying? he said.
A dozen kilometres from Mariam and Ayman’s home in Tyre, a border conflict rages between Israel and Hezbollah, which opened a second front on October 8 in support of its ally Hamas.
“Ramadan is supposed to be about safety, but we don’t see any safety,” Mariam said.
Despite being relatively far from the active fighting, which is loosely confined to the frontier area, the sounds of strikes and sights of black smoke on the horizon have become routine for Tyre’s residents.
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