In Bekaa Valley, Mercy Corps has distributed hygiene kits, tablets to purify water, buckets and jerry cans to refugees.

CNN: Syrian refugees in Lebanon facing bitter winter

Mercy Corps will be distributing over 6, 000 winter clothes and over 4, 000 vouchers for winter clothes in Bekaa this month.

CNN: Syrian refugees in Lebanon facing bitter winter

The villages are in an area critical to controlling a corridor between Syria's Mediterranean ports and Hezbollah's base in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

WSJ: Strikes in Syria Raise Alarm

After the five-hour round trip to the summit, hop back into the car and drive out into the wilds of the Bekaa Valley.

BBC: Lebanon in a week: The ultimate road-trip guide

One centre we visited in the Bekaa Valley was distributing vouchers for food and fuel provided by the United Nations and some NGOs.

BBC: Syrian refugees endure plunging temperatures

Like children anywhere, their hands still stretched out to greet us when we trudged up a hillside in the Bekaa Valley to reach the snowbound concrete blocks they now call home.

BBC: Syrian refugees endure plunging temperatures

Baalbeck, in the Bekaa Valley, is the agricultural heart of Lebanon, and a road-trip there from Beirut leads past the town of Chtaura, where farms produce some of the Middle East's most sought-after dairy products.

CNN: Beyond hummus and kebabs: Touring a delectable Lebanon

The Meqdads, like several other Shiite clans that hail from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, maintain virtual private armies and have long had a troubled relationship with the Lebanese state, as well as with the country's two most powerful and organized Shiite militia and political parties, Hezbollah and the Amal movement.

WSJ: Syria Sends Shocks Through Lebanon, Mideast