A pioneering experience that keeps young people under the roof of their country

"Kenz House"... a restaurant that funds humanitarian activities and projects in Lebanon

• Traditional Lebanese breakfast at Beit Kenz Restaurant.

  A.F.B

• Maya Ibrahim Shah: “The association provides loans to brilliant graduates, and encourages them to invest, form a work team of young people, and stay in Lebanon.”

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The “Kenz House” differs from other houses in the upscale Sursock neighborhood in Beirut. This traditional house with its architecture, which embraces the Lebanese heritage, is a pioneering experience for a restaurant whose revenues are used to finance humanitarian activities and projects aimed at keeping Lebanese youth under the roof of their country by providing them with productive job opportunities.

The perennial trees almost hide the giant jasmine seedlings, which were painted on the facade of this house, which has traditional architecture mixed with a modern touch, and it is one of the projects of the “Beit Al Baraka” association.

incorporation

The “Beit Al Baraka” association was established with the beginning of the economic collapse in Lebanon in 2019, and its charitable projects have expanded since then, establishing a cooperative and a free pharmacy, supporting clinics and hospitals that treat those registered therein for free, and renovating more than 3,000 homes and about 670 shops, in addition to schools. And ancient buildings, and paid the tuitions of about 12,000 students and the salaries of more than 7,000 teachers in about 100 schools, according to the statistics it provided about its work.

However, the association shifted its focus “from the rentier system to the productive system,” according to its founder, Maya Ibrahim Shah, and transformed “from an association that helps to an association that provides job opportunities.”

"We wanted to make the beneficiaries of our aid productive," Ibrahim Shah told AFP. The house "provides job opportunities for young people to stay in Lebanon."

The association provides loans to brilliant graduates, encouraging them to “invest, form a work team of young people, and stay in Lebanon,” according to the activist.

And she adds, "These are job opportunities linked to our heritage, small industries, kitchen, handicrafts and crafts."

From the “moron” to the crafts

To the right of the entrance to the house, which is distinguished by its three arches, on the first floor of a heritage building, is the “Al-Mouneh” hall, which is the foodstuffs that the ancient Lebanese used to preserve and store for the winter.

And Ibrahim Shah points to a bowl of thyme, produced by a group of women in Abbasiya, southern Lebanon, explaining that "all (mouneh) on the shelves are made by women supported by the (Beit Al-Baraka) association or small companies that now employ families registered with the association."

"We also send the families we support to learn handicrafts from the indigenous craftsmen," she adds.

To the left of the entrance, there is a hall displaying handicrafts, and its shelves are decorated with copper and glass utensils and candles.

Ibrahim Shah explains: “We buy candles from a (...) artisan factory in Karantina,” which is from the suburbs of Beirut, very close to the port, and from the neighborhoods that were destroyed by the horrific explosion that occurred in it on August 4, 2020, and killed more than 200 people.

She says, "We renovated the factory after the port explosion, and we contributed to buying a machine for it and a generator."

As for copper, it is from Tripoli, “where production is limited due to the absence of electricity and raw materials.”

The association seeks to revive the glass industry on the coast of Tyre, as only one family survived in this craft.

In the house there is a library that provides its patrons from the neighborhood and retired university professors with a collection of books and two newspapers in French and Arabic.

In the restaurant, which is distinguished by its carved wooden ceiling, the menu is also derived from heritage.

Ibrahim Shah says, "We offer, for example, zucchini with milk stuffed with bulgur, not rice. In the nineteenth century, Lebanon did not import rice."

The restaurant’s revenues are allocated to contribute to financing the humanitarian activities of “Beit Al Baraka” and the association’s projects aimed at employing young people at a time when the unemployment rate has touched about 30%, and more than 80% of Lebanon’s population is below the poverty line, due to the economic crisis that Lebanon has been witnessing since 2019 and is considered the worst. On its history, she adds, “In the agricultural lands run by the Beit Al Baraka Association, we have a perennial jasmine tree, and our team of hotel school graduates made ice cream from jasmine and served sweets with carob molasses.”

The treasure of the "Lebanese psyche"

Ibrahim Shah asserts that the goal of the "Kenz House" is to "revive and preserve the heritage, and pass it on from one generation to the next."

And she believes that "every country that goes through an economic crisis automatically loses its social fabric, and with its fading away, history, culture, civilization and heritage fade away, and their way of living, eating and traditions change."

This obsession overshadows the form of the "treasure house" itself, not just its content.

He took up residence in a building built at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the upscale Sursock neighborhood in Beirut, consisting of three floors. It was completely destroyed by the Beirut port explosion, and its owner, Margo Tabbal, died as a result of her injury in the explosion.

Ibrahim Shah sought the help of history professors and the Absad Association, which is concerned with protecting natural sites and ancient buildings, to carefully select all the materials used in the restoration of the house, from floor tiles to wood.

"We wanted to put the house back as it was," she says.

The lady of the house excitedly gets up from her place, heading to a hanging painting, which includes all those who contributed to the revival of this house, and says: “Everything you see in (Beit Kenz), from fabrics to sofa fillings, to books, wood, dishes, Christmas tree, chandeliers and lighting, Air conditioners and bamboo seats, all of which we got for free.

And she adds, “I feel very affected by that.

It sums up the Lebanese psyche.

It is a treasure.

• At home, there is a library that provides its patrons from the neighborhood and retired university professors with a collection of books and two newspapers in French and Arabic.

• The “Beit Al Baraka” association was established with the beginning of the economic collapse in Lebanon in 2019, and its charitable projects have expanded since then, establishing a cooperative and a free pharmacy, supporting clinics and hospitals that treat those registered therein for free, and renovating more than 3,000 homes and about 670 shops, in addition to Schools and ancient buildings, and paid the tuitions of about 12,000 students and the salaries of more than 7,000 teachers in about 100 schools.

• The restaurant's revenues are allocated to contribute to the financing of the "House of Blessing House" humanitarian activities and the association's projects aimed at employing young people at a time when the unemployment rate has touched about 30%, and more than 80% of Lebanon's population is below the poverty line, due to the economic crisis that Lebanon has been witnessing since 2019, It is considered the worst in its history.

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