Berrad el Hay, a Lebanese NGO, is an initiative dedicated to alleviating hunger, addressing food insecurity, and fostering community solidarity.
By combating poverty and reducing food waste, Berrad El Hay aims to make food accessible while building resilient neighborhoods. Operating across three neighborhoods in Lebanon, their approach involves maintaining daily contact with the community to tailor initiatives based on real-time needs, aiming to produce locally-led programs to serve local concerns.
In addition to providing meals and support, Berrad El Hay collaborates with other NGOs and organizations to offer holistic services, including mental health support, skill development, job opportunities, educational activities for children, and leisure programs for the elderly.
Their mission is to foster strong neighborhood solidarity while also encouraging the most vulnerable to become active members of the community. This is done in collaboration with other NGOs and organizations that offer holistic services, including mental health support, skill development, job opportunities, educational activities for children, and leisure programs for the elderly.
Berrad el Hay has secured employment within their community kitchen and through their networks through community engagement and proper donation channels. For example, through a partnership with the industrial group InDevCo, they were able to provide job opportunities to many of their male beneficiaries, such as operators, waste managers, and caretakers for families. For women, Berrad el Hay provides occasional training in sewing skills and works towards obtaining orders from local NGOs to support their economic empowerment.
Berrad El Hay's cooks and chefs working on serving hundreds of hungry, vulnerable people and families.
The programs1 implemented by Berrad El Hay include a Community Fridge that serves daily meals, a Community Kitchen that serves meals to registered beneficiaries and NGOs, lunch box distributions for vulnerable children, meals for partner NGOs, monthly breakfast boxes, social support services, and a summer camp for children.
In addition to community-led initiatives, the organization actively engages in food drives, meal-sharing initiatives, food recovery programs, volunteering, mentorship, and advocacy campaigns to combat hunger and raise awareness about food insecurity.
With directed levels of scalability and driven by values such as solidarity, respect, humility, non-discrimination, and integrity, Berrad El Hay’s impactful initiatives result in distributing 12,400 monthly meals through its 3 community fridges, 1,000 monthly meals to partner NGOs, 4,800 monthly school lunchboxes, and 200 breakfast boxes to beneficiaries.
Berrad el Hay has implemented multiple strategies for expanding their scope of work and influence in Lebanese communities. These include:
- Identifying potential donors which align with Berrad el Hay’s objectives and values in order to fund their programs and develop their capacities.
- Developing compelling proposals that outline Berrad el Hay’s goals, expected outcomes, and expected impacts for it’s the local communities it serves. These proposals must always present the necessity and urgency of Berrad el Hay’s mission and vision.
- Build and augment strong relationships with potential and existing donors. This involves networking, attending relevant conferences, or reaching out through formal channels to introduce Berrad El Hay.
- Leveraging from online platforms by utilizing online crowdfunding platforms, social media, and websites to reach a broader audience and engage potential donors.
- Customizing and communications and appeals by tailoring them according to the wants, needs, and interests of targeted donors.
- Maintain a strong monitoring and evaluation framework and activities to keep donors updated on the project's progress and the impact it's having on it. This is motivated by the idea that regular reporting builds stronger trusts between donors and Berrad el Hay.