A community space turned relief hub — supplying informal shelters with the essentials that no one else is bringing.
DonateIn the few years since it started operating, Beit Aam — Arabic for "The Common House" has become a reference point for collective organising in the city: proof that shared space, run by the people who use it, could become genuinely essential. Beit Aam brought together cooperatives, artist initiatives, community groups, and collective endeavours of many kinds under one roof. It was, at its heart, a wager on the idea that a space held in common is a space multiplied.
When the war re-erupted in March 2025 and Beirut and much of Lebanon faced another wave of mass displacement, that ethos translated immediately into action. Beit Aam pivoted to emergency relief. The same networks of trust, reciprocity, and mutual aid were now redirected to find the people most in need: families in informal shelters, displaced individuals outside the reach of state support, communities that had already been displaced once and were now displaced again.
Beit Aam collects cash and in-kind donations and uses them to supply shelters with the things that disappear first: diapers, blankets, pillows, hygiene kits, menstrual products. It relies on volunteer energy and extended networks starting in neighbourhoods around Beirut, expanding to Bekaa, Saida, the Shouf, Aley, and Mount Lebanon — with word of mouth serving as the primary mechanism for finding those most in need. Since the re-escalation, operations have relocated to the Beirut Art Center, which has provided both space and institutional support for the expanded effort.
What distinguishes Beit Aam is its proximity to the informal shelters that formal humanitarian systems often miss. These are not the registered camps or the well-documented displacement sites that international response mechanisms are built to serve. They are schools, garages, half-finished buildings, the spare rooms of strangers — places where people end up when they have nowhere else to go. Beit Aam knows these places and gets supplies there.
The wave of giving that accompanies breaking news recedes within weeks; the displacement does not. Sustained, regular contributions are what allow Beit Aam to plan, to restock, and to keep showing up.
Cash and in-kind donations are collected and distributed directly to informal shelters and displaced families.
Nappies and basic infant supplies for families with young children living in informal shelters.
Bedding and warmth essentials for displaced individuals living in makeshift or unheated spaces.
Personal hygiene packages including soap, toothbrushes, and sanitary essentials.
Disposable and reusable menstrual products for women and girls in shelters across Lebanon.
Direct financial support channelled to families and shelters with the most urgent and flexible needs.
Word-of-mouth networks to find and serve displaced people outside formal humanitarian systems.
What began as a neighbourhood response in Beirut has expanded through community networks to reach displaced people across Lebanon. The informal nature of this reach is precisely what allows Beit Aam to find the people that formal systems overlook.
This section is updated regularly with news from the field. Older updates are preserved below.
Stand With Lebanon goes live, featuring Beit Aam as one of the organisations at the heart of the emergency relief effort. Beit Aam has been active since the re-escalation began, mobilising its community networks to supply informal shelters across Beirut and beyond.
Updates from the field will be posted here as the campaign progresses. Follow along and share the page to help sustain their work.
All funds go directly to purchasing and distributing essential supplies to displaced families in informal shelters across Lebanon.
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