Helping Women Raise a Stock of Their Own

 The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) with the assistance of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) are working together to provide 60 Lebanese families with sheep in their project called “Food Security for Vulnerable Bekaa Families”.
The project was launched in April 2015 and will progress for the duration of three years. Sixty families, picked after careful evaluation and specific criteria for selection based on need for income, received a sheep from LOST. The mother figure in each family will be the beneficiary of the sheep and responsible for its well-being.
Since May 2015, Monitoring and Evaluation officers from LOST have been performing routine check ups on the families that received sheep. The goal of this project is to enhance socio-economic relations between Lebanese and Syrian residents and to ease tensions due to the aftermath from the Syrian Crisis.
This Food Security Project aims to relieve tensions between Lebanese and Syrian citizens by providing a trade market, encouraging communication and civic peace through workshops. These workshops focus on peace building, social cohesion, techniques to sell products from sheep raising.
The project will aid in creating gender equality in the community, where women will have a role in sustaining their families and providing food security. Women will have a role in providing for the welfare of their children and ensuring that their children have the nutrition they need to grow. It gives women a chance to be breadwinners in their households, resulting in two incomes to live comfortably.