In the early morning hours in the eastern Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayze, hit hard by the mammoth explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital a week ago, hundreds of volunteers are already on the streets with food parcels and brooms flung over their shoulders.
They are offering help where a widely despised government fears to tread.
Perched near a large pile of rubble, an elderly woman watches the volunteers move in and out of buildings to inspect or clean them up; others open boxes and distribute donated food and water.