Beirut thrift shop offers free food and clothes to poor

"They enter with tears in their eyes, but when they leave the shop, I can only see their laughter." 

With these words, Cherine Kabbani describes the most beautiful feeling she experiences every day at her clothing store in Lebanon's capital city, Beirut. 

She remembers a little girl entering her clothes store a few years ago with tears rolling down her cheeks, and then minutes later, leaving it with a broad smile on her face. 

The store offers something very rare-- bags full of clothes free of cost. 

In 2017, Cherine, the mother of a young child, decided to donate her spare clothes to families in need. On her Facebook account, she wrote a post asking her friends to pack their extra clothes.

She then visited them in various Lebanese provinces and then distributed the entire collection in multiple neighbourhoods. 

Out of this experience of collecting and giving away clothes, the idea of renting a shop in Beirut was born. 

She named it Tyeb El Eid, which in English means 'feast clothes'.

Explaining the thinking behind naming her store Tyeb El Eid, she told TRT World that it's based on the idea of receiving a gift, which makes one feel as fulfilled as one feels after having a lovely feast. 

"That is what I wanted others to feel," said Cherine.

"When people come to the store, they tell us that they had forgotten what it's like to smile and laugh and that after stepping in here they feel elated".

The preparations of the small store began before the holy month of Ramadan in 2017.

Tyeb El Eid soon became the first store to offer the idea of free shopping to the needy in Lebanon. 

"I opened it on the first day of Ramadan," Cherine said. "We continued. [And since then] the donors kept sending us outfits and we kept taking them to the laundry before putting them up for donation."

Some visitors left a lifelong impression on Cherine. She particularly remembers a dwarf man nicknamed Abu Ali.   

"He was very popular in the area. He wanted a red cap and a red shirt. His beautiful laugh and innocence made me give him what he wanted," she said. 

By the end of Ramadan, Cherine and her volunteers had donated 7,000 clothes to Beirut's poor and needy people.

Cherine decided to keep the store open and not keep the venue limited to the month of Ramadhan.  

Economic difficulties in Lebanon

The monthly cost of running Tyeb El Eid is around $850, which includes paying the rent to the landlord and salary to a permanent employee who attends the visitors during work hours. 

With the severe drop of the Lebanese lira against the US dollar and rising inflation, Cherine finds it hard to keep the shop running. 

Hard currency has dried up in Lebanon since it slumped into a major financial meltdown in 2019, and people with US dollar accounts have only been able to make withdrawals in Lebanese lira at an exchange rate of 3,900 lira to one US dollar.

"Unfortunately, the state did not provide us with any aid, even though we have become a registered association and we are entitled to an annual aid," said Cherine, who wants to expand her shop and develop a mechanism for distributing clothes.

"The difficult situation of the country increases our daily difficulties. Poverty has increased. I was thinking, for example, of renting a bigger shop. But I backed off."

"I thank God that there are many storehouses that provide us with the service of storing large quantities of clothes for free. We use them as a warehouse."

But despite these difficulties, Cherine insists on keeping the Tyeb El Eid open for people. 

"Even if I had to fund it myself, I will. I will not close it," she said.

Cherine is in touch with several civil society organizations in Lebanon. They help them collect clothes and items from charitable people in villages.  Then they send them to the shop to be distributed to the needy.

Although the aid started with clothes, it now includes stationery, toys, shoes, blankets, and food.

"The shop has developed today, and we provide, in addition to clothes, everything families could need. We help with school books and stationery, house rents, snacks, and meals," she said.

"Sometimes we help new grooms before their wedding by presenting them with a photographer for the ceremony, for example, or a wedding suit/dress". 

Donors from around the world

Tyeb El Eid has become popular outside Lebanon, too. It receives donations from countries like Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Australia, the US, Brazil, and Sweden.

The permanent donors from Lebanon are struggling to keep up with the supplies, however.  Such are the times, people who donated clothes to Tyeb El Eid a few years ago now availing the shop's services.

For Cherine, the store is open for everyone no matter which religion, nationality or sect or colour the person belongs to. 

"We don't discriminate between anyone," Cherine said.

But the priority is given to those who come across as the most desperate and needy ones.

To make that judgment as to who is needy and who isn't, she relies on a survey that she had carried out with her colleagues to determine each family's financial situation that regularly visits the store.

"Like what are their social conditions, the number of children in the family, the monthly financial return. We make sure of this before distributing aid. We don't take a single pound from anyone. Everything in this shop is 100 percent free". 

She remembers an unforgettable incident — when a mother came with her infant daughter. The little girl was sleeping in a vegetable basket.

"The scene was so tearful. It was winter and the baby girl was lying in a vegetable basket with no blanket, nothing at all," Cherine said.

She and her friends visited the mother's house and saw the family living in extreme poverty. Cherine and her friends gave some of the essential items the little girl needed the most. 

"A while back, another lovely child came to the shop wearing a nylon diaper, which had caused him skin infection," Cherine said. 

"That was very painful. We helped that little angel too."

Cherine won first place in the DHL's Got Heart, a global competition for humanitarian initiatives worldwide, such as establishing shelters and centres for the homeless, building small schools, etc. 

The competition included more than 80 countries around the world.

"Sometimes a mother chooses the clothes she wants for her child and gives us a thousand lira (less than a dollar). She tells us that she cannot pay more but wants to feel that she's supporting this shop."

Cherine confirms that the first supporters of the store were the people who believed in its humanitarian, non-commercial idea and were driven by the idea of doing good. 

"I am just a tool. The credit goes to donors. We are only a medium to help those in need."