What’s it like to have to flee your home and country in search of safety? Food writer John Gregory-Smith travels to Lebanon to meet Syrian families who’ve taken refuge there. Against a backdrop of the most challenging circumstances, he discovers how, with the help of the World Food Programme, refugees are working hard to keep spirits high – and their food traditions alive

PHOTOGRAPHS ALAN KEOHANE

food for thought.

S itting on the floor next to Samra, I watch as she chops up a juicy red tomato and chucks the pieces into a mixing bowl. I pass her the cucumbers we’ve just bought and she dices these up too. She’s preparing dinner, dressed in an ornate beaded robe she’s wearing for a friend’s wedding this afternoon. Around us is mayhem. Family members drop in, Samra’s four children are tearing around, and most of the neighbours’ kids seem to be trying to come in to play.

I’m in Telyani, a settlement in Bar Elias in Lebanon, with 26-year-old Samra, who moved to the country with her family five years ago from the Syrian city of Raqqa.

They recently relocated and have been living in this settlement for three months.

Conditions are cramped. Their tent has three small rooms: a sitting room that doubles as a bedroom; a small storage room with a clapped-out fridge; and a tiny kitchen that has flooded. Shelves hold a few spices, cooking pots and serving plates and, apart from a mobile phone and a few dollies belonging to Samra’s four-year-old daughter, Noursine, this is the bulk of the family’s possessions.