The Aïn Ebel cooperative was the first cooperative with which Fair Trade Lebanon had established a partnership. The first contacts were very difficult to be made due to the increasingly growing social and economic problems of this village located at the border of southern Lebanon.

In order to compensate all the failed association initiatives led by the men of the village, some women had come together to combine their expertise and know-how in a processing unit; they progressively became specialized in the production of carob molasses and in the filtering and conservation of olive oil.

They have also developed the packaging of other products, such as herbal tea and mixed herbs. The partnership with FTL, which took action simultaneously with the help of the French embassy and that of the French UNIFIL contingent, supported the efforts of these women by supplying them with more performing equipment and by introducing them to new activities. Since then, the economic results of this cooperative haven’t stopped improving and have reinstalled dynamism and hope to a whole village community.