Kickstarter Just Funded A Food Truck For Refugee Women In Lebanon

A woman living in Lebanon is doing something amazing for Palestinian refugee women. In a Beirut refugee camp, Mariam Shaar is helping refugee women find work and expand their business expertise by giving them jobs at her catering service.

The catering unit, Soufra, is helping women by giving them a means of income.

Alfanar, an Arab region philanthropic organization, set up a Kickstarter to help get Mariam and Soufra a food truck to further expand the business.

Mariam runs the Women’s Program Association (WPA) in Burj el Burajneh and uses it to provide education, vocational skills and micro-loans to women. She set up the Soufra catering unit in hopes of providing a source of income for the WPA and for the women.

With five days left as of publication, the Kickstarter has already been fully funded ($55,243 US) reaching more than $8,000 past its original goal of $46,973.

The money raised goes towards buying the truck, equipping it with cooking equipment and the fuel to run the truck for a year.

Soufra is aware how difficult it is for women to make a business selling food outside of the refugee camp due to social barriers. Because of this, the company plans to cater to venues and businesses that are supportive of their cause and have been prearranged.