LEBANON RELIEF AND REBUILDING

Project Update - Lebanon Humanitarian Relief

Dec 21

On August 4th, a massive explosion caused extensive damage throughout Beirut with countless homes, schools and places of worship severely damaged. Two hundred people died, several thousand people were injured and more than 300,000 people were left with damaged homes or completely homeless. It's frankly a miracle that more didn't perish. However, it simply added to the ongoing pain and anguish for the Lebanese and the more than a million and a half refugees in Lebanon.

WCF is working with our field partners such as RCB, ABTS and Heart For Lebanon to help the people in Beirut in multiple ways: Food/Hygiene/Children Care Packages, repairing homes, schools and churches, and providing subsidized medicine and medical care to patients at our Medical Life Center. We worked with RCB to provide Food, baby diapers and women's feminine products to more than 2,800 families over three months. We worked with Heart For Lebanon to repair 6 churches and numerous homes. We worked with ABTS to provide temporary housing for 82 people newly homeless and subsequent repairs of their homes.

Here is a short video clip showing some of our repair efforts:

Here are some testimonies from those who lost their homes:

The family of A.Q. is one of many families whose life changed completely after the Beirut explosion. Their house was destroyed and they were really affected physically and psychologically. The father lost his job and the family has barely been able to secure all their kids’ needs, financially and educationally. The family stopped buying some kinds of food and are having a hard time getting their essential needs. The help that we gave [Food/Hygiene Packages] was a great support for the family. Through it, they were able to get what they needed. They are very grateful for this love gesture saying that no one has ever helped them in this way before.

On August 4th, Therese was on the balcony with her grand-daughter Julia, who is 6 years old, watching the flame rise from the port. Therese's apartment overlooks the city as she lives in Ashrafieh, miles away from the port. “I had the stove on, preparing dinner for my family. When the fireworks got louder, I knew something was wrong, I turned off the stove, main electricity switch and ran to hold my granddaughter, who was terrified.”

Then the main explosion hit. “My sister who was at home with us, broke her thigh. My daughter and I carried Julia and ran downstairs trying to find refuge as we thought that a war had just started. Tania, my daughter, was barefoot and she ran on the glass. She is still visiting doctors to remove the splinters from her feet until this day.” said Therese.

Therese and her family live close to one of the biggest hospitals in that area, but when they reached it, they couldn’t get to the ER. It also was badly damaged and their doctors, nurses, and patients were injured too. That evening, Therese went back to her home. The main door was wide open, glass windows and doors were shattered on the floor, the furniture was broken and kitchenware was on the floor. There wasn’t one thing in its place. Therese grabbed a few personal belongings and left.

Later that week, she came back to her apartment. As the Heart for Lebanon Team was assessing the damage of the houses around that area, they met Therese where she asked for help. The glass doors and windows were repaired within a week, she also received a food and hygiene portion, in addition to cleaning supplies.

Our Medical Life Center in the Beirut area has treated dozens of victims of the explosion in addition to our increasing patient load of refugees. We've been able to increase our subsidies to our patients for their medication, lab and imaging costs in some cases to 100%. We've also been able to help some very needy patients with their hospitalization and surgery costs.

Here are some testimonies of our patients:

Mary is an Iraqi refugee. She had a severe pain in her abdomen and was diagnosed with appendicitis and needed to perform surgery to remove her inflamed appendix. However, due to the lack of financial means, she didn’t do the surgery. However, her situation got worse. The Life Center learned about the case and covered her operation fees, the family is grateful and happy.

Amal lives near the port and was injured in the Beirut explosion when the blast wave slammed her into the ground in her home, injuring her back. She couldn't afford the surgery. Oftentimes, refugees face insurmountable challenges when it comes to health care. When the Life Center discovered her case, we stepped in to ensure her needs were met and we covered her surgery cost. Amal is now post-surgery and feels incredible! The numbness and pain is gone and even the doctor is amazed at her progress and strength to walk so soon.