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- [00:00]
Mona
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Stephen Barden
Welcome to another episode of Migrant Odyssey. I'm Stephen Barden. Lebanon has been plagued by attacks involving Israel for over 50 years. Even the so called civil war is generally accepted to have started when the Israel friendly phalangests attacked a bus carrying Palestinians on April 13, 1975. Since then, Lebanon has been bombarded, invaded and occupied by Israel again and again and again in the 1980s, in 1993, 96, 2006, and ongoing since 2023. Israel controlled large parts of the country in the south for nearly 20 years until the year 2000, and now is threatening to take an even larger chunk. The Jerusalem government says that its attacks are and always have been directed at Hezbollah, a political and military group that was itself formed in reaction to Israel's invasion in 1982. But in reality, it's the country of Lebanon and ordinary people who have borne the brunt of all attacks. More than a million people have been displaced, and not for the first time since March 2026. Those attacks have been massively escalated, not just in the south, where Hezbollah are supposed to be strongest, but as far as Beirut, which has taken horrendous damage in these latest attacks. It's estimated over 3,000 people have been killed and the damage to homes, public services and infrastructure is in the tens of billions of dollars. Ordinary people. That phrase in war, it's ordinary people who suffer has become so self evident that those of us in relatively peaceful and prosperous countries have forgotten what it actually means. And what it actually means is that ordinary people are us. We are the ordinary people, wherever we are. By a simple twist of fate, by a tiny shift in the dial, any one of us could be in the line of fire or digging loved ones out of the rubble or lying awake for the next explosion. Wars hurt people just like us. Wars hurt us. And there's another layer we're missing. These people, us are characters who are funny sometimes, who are full of energy sometimes, and they're full of love a lot of the time, and they have real ambitions about what they want to do with their lives, that their lives must mean more than war, that life must mean more than seeing the house you rebuilt after the last war now either abandoned again or bombed again. But the job you had that you struggled to get to feed your family is now gone again. These are the people that I'll be focusing on in the next few episodes of Migrant Odyssey. Lovely, clever people in Lebanon with stories and faith and fun, who have so much life and are so much more than the threats and horrors that surround them. Today I want to introduce you to Mona, a 27 year old young woman living in the very ancient city of Saida. I talked to her a day before the Iranian US ceasefire and Israel's escalated attacks on Lebanon and her city. I asked her what day to day life means to her.
- [04:43]
Mona
Like right now, like the situation, it's unstable. There's fear, there's worry, but there's still a string of hope and light that everything is going to be okay. It's not the first time and it may be not the last time that we're going to live at war. But we still hold up like everything is going to be fine and everything's going to be okay. At the end of day we're still alive and that's the most important thing.
- [05:17]
Stephen Barden
And why, why is there hope? Just tell me.
- [05:22]
Mona
Having faith in God, this is the biggest reason actually being able to believe. Like everything is written for us and everything God choose for us, it's, it's better than we want actually. So everything is gonna be fine. Like even no matter what the outcome is gonna be, this is the best thing that would ever be written for us. Like at the end of day we know like God loves us. So no matter what happened, we knew like it could be worse. So having this, it's a blessing at the end of day.
- [06:13]
Stephen Barden
And are the Israelis bombarding Saida at the moment now?
- [06:19]
Mona
Like it's been kind of quiet, yet there's still like bombs all around south and Beirut. Sometimes we hear them and insider like there is airplane military going through Saida every night. So it's kind of stressful like the sound of it. It's very stressful. Like you don't know they do they gonna bomb, they don't gonna bomb. Like it's not expect like we don't expect like the last war they were telling where they gonna bomb. So there was a warning in 2024. Now this war, like we don't have any warning. Like all the bombs inside that happened, it was without warning. So this is the scary part, like you don't, we don't know when it's gonna happen, where it's gonna happen. Yeah, who's they, who they gonna bomb? Like, even though like everyone who have been killed, like we ask ourselves like why they're living in that building. But at the same time they are human beings. Like at their house, at their home, they also lost, they lost their lives, they, their family, they lost them. So we all in this together, it's not just me or them, we're all in this together. So no matter what, we have to be united at this time. Like right now. There's this drone inside. So we can hear it.
- [08:06]
Stephen Barden
You can hear it right now as we're talking.
- [08:09]
Mona
Yes. It's far, but I can hear it. It's never ending cycle. Like it's either the drone or the plane. It's never ending.
- [08:20]
Stephen Barden
And what, what is that done? What has that done to. To you and your family in terms of anxiety, in terms of sleep, in terms of just day to day life?
- [08:31]
Mona
Like, day to day. Like, actually, my parents, they. They are doctors. So like my dad, he works inside that. He moved all his. He's in like management in the hospital. So he moved, they moved everything to say though, everything. So. But my mom, she. She's in Beirut right now in the house, the Palestinian hospital in Beirut in Burjit Barajna, where there are actually bombs around her. So this is kind of anxiety. Like, I need to check. Like, mom, like, they bombed. Like, you're okay, right? Yeah, yeah, I've heard it. Like, that's very, very normal. Like, it's okay, I'm alive. They not like, we hope. Like, okay, they're not gonna bomb a hospital, right? Like, this is like, we still. But at the end of the day, we don't know if they gonna bomb it or no. Yeah, a few days ago, we, like, we were doing kayak with me with my team and there was a drone. Like, we, we. We are in the river and we can hear it and we're like, that's okay. Like, just like, don't focus on that sound and just focus on, on the sound of water and just enjoy it. Like, we're used to it. Like, it's a survival mood where we live in right now. Everyone, not just me or my parents, like, everyone, they, we, like, we get tired, not of the situation, but because we are now in a survival mood for a very long time. And it's getting exhausted, actually.
- [10:12]
Stephen Barden
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go. Let's go back to your life story now and then, which has taken a number of turns. You mentioned in passing here that your dad and your mother both are. Are surgeons. That's correct. That's correct. Aren't they? That's what you told me last time. And your dad is insider working insider. And your mom is in Beirut working there. Are they working with Palestinians or are they working with the general population? Because you also told me at one stage that's a sort of recurring theme of Palestinians in the Lebanon and in many other countries. That they can't work, but certainly in the Lebanon. So your mum's working in the Palestinian hospital. Is your dad now working outside a Palestinian hospital? How does that work? How's that operating
- [11:14]
Mona
both in the Palestinian hospital, it's like they're at cross society for Palestinian, Palestinian crescent society, society. But being a Palestinian, it's knowing that we. There are limits. Like they don't have the right to proceed their career. So my dad, he's allowed to work only in this hospital. There's no other option. And my mom, she's being Ukrainian, married to Palestinian. There's way more limits because she even not allowed to work at all.
- [11:54]
Stephen Barden
Your mom, much like, much like Zoya, a good friend of this podcast, your mom is Ukrainian and your dad is Palestinian. How did they meet? How did your parents meet?
- [12:12]
Mona
In Ukraine. They studied at the same university, actually. And they got married and they still proceeding their studies. They had my first sibling and then they decided to come back to Lebanon. So there was a university love story. Yes.
- [12:34]
Stephen Barden
So they both came back as qualified surgeons and of course then found that they couldn't, they couldn't work.
- [12:41]
Mona
Yes, exactly.
- [12:43]
Stephen Barden
And you have, you have just, just a background. You have how many siblings you got? Two brothers, is that correct?
- [12:50]
Mona
Yes. One older, one younger.
- [12:53]
Stephen Barden
And, and how close are you to your, to your, to your siblings?
- [13:00]
Mona
Because we have a very huge gap between us. It's quite difficult, but at the end of the day we're very close. Like my older brother, he's like a safe place, A person who've been there for me my whole childhood, yet still today he supports me no matter how far away he is. And my youngest brother, even though he's like 21 right now, but he's still young. So there's still these fights, these little bit of like nagging and everything, but still it's nice to have a sibling.
- [13:40]
Stephen Barden
Yeah.
- [13:41]
Mona
In the same country.
- [13:43]
Stephen Barden
You told me when we, we spoke earlier on that you'd fallen in love. And I've. I've never heard anybody say this before. You'd fallen in love with finance and banking. But so tell me something about that, because that also goes back into the theme of Palestinians not being able to pursue their profession. So tell me something about falling in love with finance and banking and then how you very stubbornly chase that.
- [14:15]
Mona
I grew up in Lebanon, but as Palestinian, you grew up knowing there are limits. So there are things you are not allowed to become, not because you are not capable, but because the system doesn't see you the same way. But it is still, like, I chose to study banking and finance and I love. Doesn't make sense to a lot of people because I chose a path that wasn't fully open to me, but I chose it anyway. I'm not allowed to work in this major in this country. I was the only Palestinian in the whole faculty who chose banking and finance. All Palestinian, they went to accounting, management, marketing, a career where they are allowed somehow to work in. There were options, but I've chosen something else. I've chosen something I've. I've wanted my whole life. Like, even when I was little, I told you, like I told my mom, I want to work at the bank. I never knew what bank was, but I told her, like, one day I'm gonna work at the bank. So I've chose this career even though my parents like my, even my father, he wasn't like very with me, like being. Going even to business, because there was a very big limitation. Very. Even though I didn't imagine to that level, like I had to do an internship. And I've called the whole banks in all of Lebanon and all of them refused me.
- [15:58]
Stephen Barden
So no bank in Lebanon? No bank in. Sorry, sorry to interrupt. No bank in the Lebanon would accept you for an unpaid internship, correct? After you graduated?
- [16:11]
Mona
No, they didn't accept.
- [16:14]
Stephen Barden
And you missed out a delightful part of the story, which was that when you first went to university, you, you, you had to go and do an accounting course, and then you persuaded the dean. Is that right? You persuaded the dean.
- [16:34]
Mona
When I, like, I've been a little bit rebellious child, like, I've did things that my parents put them under the fact that I did, I'm going to do this, or I did this. So growing up, I wanted to go to Beirut Arab University because my brother, he graduated from that university and at that year he left. Like he left Lebanon to proceed his career in United Arab Emirates. And I wanted this connection, like a dream. Like, I want to be connected somehow to my brother for my. For forever to be graduated from the same university as him. So when I finished high school and there was like, I need to choose a university, I came like, I'm not choosing. I'm going to this university, to this campus, the BE campus. So my dad didn't accept this at first because there was a lot of options. There was a lot of universities in Saida. You can go inside. Why you need to go outside Saida to that university to study. But yet this dream inside of me, I didn't share it with anyone. Like, I want to go because my brother, he went there. I want to have this connection with him. I want to graduate from that university to feel connected to my brother. So going there, I decided to go to business. My dad, he didn't accept because he knew the limitation of a Palestinian person doing business. So he was like, go do something maybe related to medicine, a little bit related to anything that he would be able to find me a job. Like if I did something related to medicine, I would have an opportunity maybe to work in the same hospital as he is working right now. I didn't want that. I was very like, I'm going to business. I've studied economy, so I'm going to business. So going to, there I was, I was telling him like, I'm going banking and finance. And he was like, no, either you go like accounting management or you can't go. But there was a conflict also. Like he was, he was refusing to that university. He there was like, try to find okay, business, but in other universities. So this, this I'm gonna get you a scholarship. And there's where they help Palestinian here. This is very close to home. And I was like, I remember like going to my brother and telling him if I'm not going to Beirut Arab University and education is very important to us. Like this is something non negotiable in my family. You need to have a higher education and there's no option. Like, I want to proceed. I don't want to proceed. No, you should proceed. So I'm going like, even though, like I knew I should go to university, I want to tell them like if I don't get to Arab University and I'm forced to get the other university in Seidel, I'm going to repeat the first semester as much as I can to make this point that other than Beirut Arab University, I'm not going to graduate. So he helped me convincing that like, let her go to Beirut Arab University, let her go to the B. Let her proceed whatever she wants. So going there, I remember, I remember me and dad going to register at the university. So I wanted to register bank and finance, but because my dad was with me at the registration, I couldn't. So I, I've written accounting. I remember like reading and having my heart broken, like accounting. Okay, I, I submitted my, my papers and I've started university. So at the first semester I remember going to the dean and I'm telling him I want to change my major to banking and finance. Like I want to change it. I don't want to proceed accounting. So I Flipped my major and for two years studying when I was like, I'm going, I still have one year to graduate. I had to do an internship to graduate. And I was getting refused from. Rejected. Actually I was getting rejected from all banks in Lebanon. I've talked to my cousin, she lives in uae. So I was telling her like, I'm not able to find an internship in a bank. Not on the Palestinian passport nor the Ukrainian. Like I'm not going to graduate, like I need to do this internship. So she told me that her cousin, she works at the bank and she can help me. So I told her yes, like, of course I want to like proceed, tell me what I need to do. So I've sent all my documentation for my cousin and she was working behind everyone's back with me to, to do this internship. So when I got accepted from the bank, I told, I remember telling my brother, like, I have an internship and it's in UAE and like my cousin helped me to do, to find it and I'm coming to uae. So he was very flexible with that. So he understood like what's, who I am and what I'm doing. But going to my dad, like, dad, I'm going to travel, like to a uae. And he was like, what? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to do an internship there in Sharjah. And after that I'm going to Abu Dhabi to Ali to live there for also doing an internship there. And he was like, what? And he's like, yeah, I got rejected from all the banks in Lebanon. He's like, why you need banks? You can go accounting. You can go. I can find you an internship now at any, any place as accounting. And I'm telling him like, yeah, I forgot to tell you that I changed my major two years ago to banking and finance. And I'm going like, it's, it's like there is no option left. Like I need to go or I don't graduate. So I actually went there. I found like I did an internship in banking and bank. Then I went to Abu Dhabi and did an internship in finance, like in financial company. So I had the two options, like the banking internship and the finance internship.
- [23:31]
Stephen Barden
Despite the fact that you then went on to do a master's.
- [23:36]
Mona
Yes.
- [23:36]
Stephen Barden
You never were able to actually get a job in, in your field in the Lebanon. So is this correct? You then decided to go to the Ukraine or to the Ukraine before, before the war started? That's right. To see if you can get a job there and to stay with your, your mother's mother, your grandmother.
- [23:59]
Mona
Yeah, I was like, I was hoping, like, I know Lebanon never recognized us as a citizen because we are very limited as Palestinian. So I was hoping that if I graduated from the most eligible university in whole Lebanon, like American University of Beirut, this would give me a door open to be able to find a job. Even though I'm Palestinian, I've graduated from the best university in Lebanon, a master's degree, and I had a full scholarship, but this didn't guarantee any job for me. Still, the fact that I'm Palestinian didn't change. So I decided to go. I went to Ukraine and actually I went there also being rebellious, not telling my dad that I decided to stay there. Like, I booked a ticket, open ticket one way. And I told that going to the airport, actually that he was asking when you're going return. And I told him I didn't book the way back ticket.
- [25:05]
Stephen Barden
And that was when, like, he.
- [25:08]
Mona
That was after I graduated my university in 2000 before, like in 2021, 2022, actually.
- [25:17]
Stephen Barden
And, and, and Zoya was there. Zoya went there about the same time, correct?
- [25:23]
Mona
Yes, yes.
- [25:24]
Stephen Barden
Both. You both went to Kiev. You both went to Kiev, correct?
- [25:28]
Mona
Yeah. From here? Yes.
- [25:30]
Stephen Barden
Okay, now, so the very. This is. This, this. There's. There's a lot of. There's a lot of ironies in, in your life, which I find, you know, it literally must. Must come from Allah that the. Despite the fact that you had been born and brought up in a. In a country which is. Which was full of, you know, attacks and warfare, etc. Etc. The first time you actually experienced war was in the Ukraine.
- [26:05]
Mona
Right? Because in 2006, when the war happened in Lebanon, we actually been in Ukraine every summer. We, We've tried to go to Ukraine the summer break. So we actually left Lebanon few days before the war even started. So. So we were lucky at that point. So I didn't experience 2006 war. The first war I ever experienced was in Ukraine.
- [26:31]
Stephen Barden
So there you were in Ukraine, had just arrived, I assume a few weeks or a few months. And you were looking, Were you looking for a job there in finance and banking?
- [26:43]
Mona
Yes, I was trying to find a job there because I never knew what stability feels like actually for a long time. And I thought it was a weakness for me. So I was trying to find the stability in Ukraine, being a citizen there. Yeah, Being recognized because I am Ukrainian since birth, because my mom gave me the passport. So I'm fully a citizen, fully allowed to work there. And I. And I felt fully recognized at Ukraine. So it felt like home. So I was trying. Me and Zoya were trying to find a stability living in Ukraine. We're trying to build a life there. So we were looking for a job. But the whole situation, the economy, the crisis and all the war news that was still affecting somehow. And then the war started.
- [27:44]
Stephen Barden
And how did you discover that the war had started?
- [27:50]
Mona
So the war doesn't ask you if you are ready or not. It just come like they don't ask. We were not ready. We knew there was a war news. Like, we're reading like it's going to be a war in Ukraine, like flee Ukraine, like leave. But still we didn't believe it. Like, so when the war started, I have this habit. I used to have this habit actually to make my phone silent the whole time. So waking up at first thing, I was checking my phone. I've seen so many missed calls from my dad, like a lot. I remember it was more than 20 times. So at that moment I jumped out of bed and I realized that the war had just started. So I ran to the living room to my grandma to tell her, like, the war started. So she was talking actually to my dad. So I took the phone. I remember him telling me, mona, don't panic. The worst just started. You need to go to the supermarket to prepare everything needed. Like go get food, go get water, go get. He gave me a list of things that I should get and he told me, like, go also to the pharmacy, get all the medications your grandmom needs. Take this medication just in case. Allergy, like antibiotics, Panadol, anything you might need right now. And stay at home. So I don't still. Like, I know the war started, but still didn't hit me. Like it didn't hit me like the war side. I was still trying to process what's going on. So I remember going to the supermarket and seeing this chaos, seeing the people panicking, seeing the carts are full, even the shelves are empty. The employees are trying to fill the shelves. The very long line at the supermarket that I've never seen. I remember taking a photo of how long the line was and I'm making joke, like, oh my God, I need to wait for all these people to get what I need. Like I was trying, like I didn't understand what's going on. And everyone's texting like, are you okay? Are you safe and everything? Can you leave Ukraine right now? And I'm still not getting the idea, like the war actually started. So I remember going back home and going back to Supermarket, getting more stuff and going to the pharmacy. And when I was in the pharmacy, going back home, the siren start, like, it went on and being there, like, it was the first time I actually hear the siren. And I had this, like, flashback from childhood movie Peter Pan, when there was a siren. And remember telling the Ukrainian group of friends, like, this is the scene of Peter Pan, like, the siren. And I was like, being funny, I don't know. Like, it still didn't hit me. Like, this is the sirens. I remembered the movie. I didn't like. Like, it's we are at war. And I remember the movie because of the siren. So I went home and I remember just sitting there. I like. And then it hit me, like, oh, wait, I'm alone. I'm responsible for my grandma. Right now I'm at war. And I've never been at war, so I don't know what I need to do. And I remember breaking down at that point. I felt like, okay, this is the real. Like, it's getting. It's getting. It was getting inside of me, like, panic and worry. And I felt like, I don't know what to do right now. But I still very grateful for having my family, my friends, who were a major support back then. So at work, my grandma actually knew exactly what I should do. I was very lucky also at that point, like, all the documentation, we put them in a bag. Like, there was a backpack ready at the door. All our documents are valuable. The passports, everything, everything in that backpack. And the clothes. Like, if something happen, we take this backpack and give.
- [32:41]
Stephen Barden
So your grandmother had prepared that backpack, is that right?
- [32:45]
Mona
Yes. So she is actually. She's like 88 years old, so. So she knew exactly what should be done. Like, I remember even she telling me, I should go and tape the whole windows at letter X. So if any bomb happen, the window will not shatter. Like, it's gonna fall. Exactly. So I remember, like, taping that window and seeing also the neighbors doing the same thing. So. So I knew, like, okay, it's an actual thing. Like, this is the first time why I should tape the window. So I'm seeing everyone taping, Taping their windows at Axe with tape. So no matter what bomb happened, like, just the window, the glass doesn't shatter. And at that moment, I was looking at the sky, and I've seen a bomb exploded. A rocket actually explodes at the sky. So I see it, and I was astonished. Like, I'm looking like, what. What I've just saw. And the sounds, it was very loud, but there was no Time to panic. There was no time to cry. There is. There was no time for us to be weak. At that point, I still had my grandma, that she's a very. She's an old person. I need to take her, take care of her. If I am not okay, she's not gonna be okay. So I need to be okay. I need to be standing. I need to be ready no matter what.
- [34:32]
Stephen Barden
Are you all right?
- [34:34]
Mona
The friend, she was living in the same, like, the same side of at me. We have a river that divides us to two sides. Me living on that side, and so she lived on the other side. But we had a common friend also. She lived near me. So I remember telling there was a train that every time there was train leaving Kiev to other cities, and from there they go to other countries. So I remember telling her, like, Julia, let's go and try. Take your mom, grandma and grandpa and let's go there. We have the 5pm curfew. We're not allowed to leave the houses. At that time, because of the bombs and everything. It was safer to stay at home. So we had, I remember, maybe two or one hour left. So I told her, let's go, try. We found a train. We found a train. We didn't find the train. We are able to go back home. So we went there. We got lucky that we found a train that was going to Lviv. And from there we decided to take a train to Poland. We were in a cabin that was made for four people. We were 17 with two dogs, all our backpacks. For more than 12 hours, we all squeezed in. We were not able to allow to share our location. If there was a bomb near us, the train would stop. The lights were turned off, the curtains were down, and silence. We just wait. We don't. We need to talk. We just wait to the train to turn back on and go there. We reached Lviv, actually. So the priority at that time was mothers and their children and elderly people. So would.
- [36:44]
Stephen Barden
Sorry, sorry. Mothers and children, LGBT people were the priority to got to go into Poland, Is that right? That's what you're saying?
- [36:52]
Mona
Yes, there was. Yes, this was a priority. Like, I've seen it. There was a conflict because of. There was a lot of conflict on social media about Ukraine and everything. But I've lived there and I've seen it. The priority was for mothers and children. The first priority, no matter the nationality. The first people went on the train. There were mothers and their children, and there was elderly also going, like going on the train. So I remember, like, because of so many people. So there was, like, too much, like, we needed to go on the train. So I remember my grandma and my friends, grandparents also going to the train. And I'm like, they on the train. So I freaked out. Like, we need to get on that train, on that cabin. Exactly. So we can be with them, because without us, they can't reach anything. So I remember going up, like, entering the train cabin, and I'm telling the security standing in the door, like, please, like, let her in, because her grandparents and actually her mom, like, also I've got. Took her, like, begging, please let her in. Because her grandparents and her mom, they are in here. So I remember, like, pushing Julia to the train and the door closes, and me looking at Julia, Julia looking at me. Like, we broke down, we start crying our eyes out. And I remember that moment, my dad called me and. And I was crying, and I was like, telling him that I'm on the train. Like, I'm going to Poland. We've made it. We did it. Like, it's kind of achievement that we did. And I was crying because I was freaking out, because at that moment, I had the chance to cry. Actually. It was the first time maybe I've reached the safe zone where I can relax, I can cry, I can process what I'm going through. So I remember my dad crying on the phone, like, please don't let me regret that I ever allowed you to go. And the train, that was supposed to be one or two hours, it took more than 17 hours to reach Poland. But. And, like, it was very. One of the hardest experience ever that I've did. Like, I remember me and Julia because we didn't have any place to sit and standing up for this long. It's getting very tired. So I remember me and her sitting on the stairs of the train. So actually, if the doors open, we're gonna fall out. We're sitting at the last there at the train. We had. We had this photo. Like, we squeezed the door, but we were so happy because we had the chance to sit and we had to relax. It was like a very, very happy and sad moment at the same time. So every time I look at that picture, actually I smile because I had the chance to have, like, to have her with me and to have a support with me during this journey. Like, we had each other at that time.
- [40:24]
Stephen Barden
Yeah. Yeah. It's a very moving story. Thank you. Thank you for sharing it. So in Poland, you then. You then decided to go back to Lebanon, Is that right? From Poland?
- [40:41]
Mona
Yes. I had made A rebellious choice once leaving Lebanon. But this time I didn't want to fight everything. So I made a different choice. I come back for my parents. So, like, we had the opportunity to go and choose whatever country we wanted. It was a privilege as your opinion, but as I told you, like, I had already made a rebellious choice leaving Lebanon at that time. Like, I'm not gonna fight. I'm not gonna do anything. Like I told my parents, you decide, like, whatever. You decide, whatever you want, I'm gonna do this time. Like, I've returned this little child. Like, I need my parents. Even though if I'm in my 20s and I've seen everyone going to. To Europe proceed a better career. It's a. It's a. It was a gold U.S. but my parents, like, no, I can come back to Lebanon. And it was the best choice. Like, I'm coming back where my parents are, where my safety is. And actually for my mom, seeing her mother, it was also something we needed. So it was the right choice at that moment to come back to Lebanon.
- [42:09]
Stephen Barden
So is your grandmother still with you?
- [42:14]
Mona
Like, she, she. She's like going there and coming back. Like, when the war started, she stayed for six months, but she went back to Ukraine because that was her home. And still it's her home. It's her country. It's still. It's where she belongs. But we still, because of the very hard winter weather and conditions, we go to Poland, we meet her at Poland, and we come back to Lebanon together. So at this time, at this moment? Yes, my grandma, she's now with us. She's spending a little bit time with us. She spent the whole winter with us. So now we're trying to see when it's the best time for her to go back to Ukraine.
- [43:04]
Stephen Barden
Mona, tell me something about what you do now. How do you occupy your days now?
- [43:19]
Mona
So actually, because I've been Palestinian, I'm being hard to find a job. And Levan wasn't easy. I've tried everything after I volunteer internship, just trying to belong somewhere. And then life shifted again. And I found myself working as a project coordinator at the same hospital where my dad works. And we had a very amazing, very humanitarian project. And there I found. I've met some. Someone was working with me. His name is Muhammad Hashim, and he's the founder of our team called Wolf's Team.
- [44:06]
Stephen Barden
Sorry, Wolf's Team is what?
- [44:09]
Mona
Wolf's Team.
- [44:12]
Stephen Barden
And what does it do?
- [44:13]
Mona
So actually, we are an extreme extreme sport team. We do all the extreme sports medum, rock climbing up sailing, we do kayak, we do caving, rafting, hiking. Every extreme sport that you can ever imagine, we do it. So, like, everything changed because we weren't just a team chasing adrenaline. We were a people trying to feel alive. In a word, that kept taking that feeling away from us. So I realized something that the thing that looks safe can break you. And the thing that look dangerous, dangerous can save you. So this is what saved me, actually. So during war, at 2024, I was doing this humanitarian project and Hamad was with me. But at this war, it's different. Like during war, we didn't just live through it. We showed up, we helped people, we gave. Because when you know what it feels to lose something, you don't ignore someone else. Pain. The founder, he decided like, no, our purpose is to be there for people, to help people. So from the first day we were on the ground, we were trying to help people until today. So we were trying to give them food, actually we're trying to give them blankets, water, tents so they can sleep in. We distributed more than 3,500 meals for them. We also distributed water, like more than 200 boxes of water. We distributed dates, we did distribute blankets, we did distribute actually mattresses for them to sleep, tents.
- [46:47]
Stephen Barden
And are these people who have been pushed out by the Israelis from the south, are these refugees coming in from even further south? Is that what's happening?
- [46:59]
Mona
Yes. So actually we're trying to help people on field that people who lost their homes, they're not in the shelter. Like the whole schools and old shelters are packed with people, but the number of people who left their homes, it's way more than any school can handle. So there are a lot of people who lives on the street. So we were targeting these people, actually. People that we knew. So many, they didn't reach them. Like, there's so many people are helping, but they're all focused on the shelters, on the schools. So people actually on the seed, there were times no one saw them, so we were trying to focus on that. And also not only them, because, because of the war, so many people inside the lost their jobs because they live day to day. Like, if I work today, I'm going to get, I'm going to eat. If I don't work today, I'm not going to eat. So many of them, they've lost these opportunities, they lost their jobs. So we're also trying to help them even, even like at anything, like, even giving me. During the day, we had this spot where we start them. Like we start from this spot and we go through the whole state, it's actually the seaside, like the Corniche we call it. They live like near the beach where people walk, they live there. So we start at the, at one point and we go through everyone. So we got recognized there. People, now, they know us, they know our cars, they know our names, they know our faces. They wait for us every single day like to come to be there. They don't even like ask if we've given them something. Like they're not expecting us to come with food. Sometimes they just expect us to come and say, hi, how are you? How are you doing today? So also being there emotionally and supporting them, it was very, very, very important for us.
- [49:08]
Stephen Barden
Yeah. So you still do that every day, is that right?
- [49:14]
Mona
Yes, but not as we used to because actually we've tried to open like a donation, like for people to donate to be able to help all these people. But we weren't able to collect the amount of donation that was needed. So everything was given to the people it was from, from the whole team. I was managing the financial, like the finance of the team. So everything we had in the savings for the team, like we had savings for like equipment for the, like the future events that we're planning to do. We had more than 20 events where we were planned and scheduled to before the war. Like everything was arranged but the war started and we're not able to do anything, we're not able to buy anything for the team. So we've took all this money and we donated them to the people. We bought meals and everything we ever distributed. So now we come to the point that, that the box is empty and one hand can't, can do a clap. Actually like we say, like one hand can't clap. You need two hands to clap together.
- [50:39]
Stephen Barden
So you need to raise funds as your base because you self funded it before and you need to raise funds. So have you created a site?
- [50:52]
Mona
We've tried to create a site. It didn't work because like GoFundMe doesn't allow in Lebanon to create a site. You need someone from outside the country. And this is very hard like to ask someone for help. So actually we were trying even like to go and do business on the floor, like on the ground on field, like to sell orange juice, to sell water to the people who are passing through cars, to see, sell coffee. So we can raise the fund and give it, give it back to the society, the community.
- [51:28]
Stephen Barden
Ideally you'd like somebody who's listening to this podcast to help start a GoFundMe site, which they can then make sure that you get the funds correct.
- [51:44]
Mona
We wish that because I'm gonna be honest, like, at this time, people are getting like. Not like they're losing hope. It's not gonna tell. They're losing hope because hope, they're always, they're always, like, I told you, there's always, like hope in everyone. But the situation is getting worse and worse. At the beginning of the war, when they left their homes, they still had some cash with them. So they lived for a few days with cash. After that, they were living from the donations and everything was coming to them. Now, the amount of people, because I don't know if you have seen the news, the whole south was ordered to leave their houses. So the number of people is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Yeah, we're doing our best, actually, because we also lost our jobs. So many of our team lost their jobs because they work in the south. Everything we had, every penny, we gave it to the society. But now, like, we are at zero. We even more than zero. Like, like our account, it's at negative and we're not able to give. So we need to collect donation. But the problem is people, they need a safe way to donate. And also we need to feel trusted.
- [53:23]
Stephen Barden
Yeah.
- [53:24]
Mona
Because, like, to find someone who you can trust to do this, it's very hard. This is the, the hard part of having GoFundMe.
- [53:34]
Stephen Barden
Okay, well, that's an open invitation to anybody who's listening to contact us so that we can see if they can help. Well, now, thank you so much. What can I say? That was a hell of a story. And I love what you're doing and, and I, I, I certainly have been particularly moved by, by the times that you, what you have felt in, in the Ukraine and what you're going through in the Lebanon, and of course, what everybody around you is going through in Lebanon. Thank you, Mona. Thank you very much. That was Mona speaking to me from Saida. If you're interested in knowing more about the Wolves team and their work or play, I've put their Instagram link in the program notes. As always, any helpful comments or questions, please don't hesitate to send them through. And if you enjoy this, please do rate and recommend us more from Lebanon next time. And until then, I'm Stephen Barden. This has been another episode of Migrant Odyssey.
- [54:49]
Mona
Sam.