Women who are the sole bread winners of their families rediscover the traditional grandmother’s food in “Mouna House (pantry)”

The society initiatives in Homs follow many ways to be part of the government efforts aimed at improving the living standard and securing job opportunities for different groups in society.

“Bait Al Mouna” kitchen, is one of the civil development projects in the “Shuaa Al Amal” Charity Association in Homs. It attracts many women who are the sole bread winners of their families, especially widows. It is considered as a place where those women gather and prepar the Syrian supplies of food, drinks, vegetables and fruits which remain edible throughout the year.

In this kitchen, the women gather around a big circular plate to prepare pumpkin, eggplant and zucchini to be dried later. Each woman has a story to tell of struggle – this pushes her to ensure the best standard of living for her children. They consider kitchen work and preparing supplies as the simplest and oldest jobs, which many women prefer and attach a great importance to.

This experience in preparing supplies is taken from tradition – from the time of the grandmothers- so that the women can succeed in their work with best results.  

Some women find in this kitchen a great opportunity to exchange experience in this domain, and to have new income to support their children and become financially independent.

“Bait Al Mouna” Kitchen is one of the developmental projects in the “Shua’a Al Amal” Association. This new project started in 2015 and it is main goal is to support the most needy families and widows through selling their produce.

Lara Khouli