Beirut Relief Fund – HHRD

The explosion that rocked the port of Beirut on August 4^th, 2020 claimed over 160 lives, injured over 6,000, and affected 300,000 people. The country issues three-days of mourning as well as, a state of emergency up to two weeks following the incident.

Lebanon was already facing an economic crisis along with increasing Covid-19 cases and then, the explosion exacerbated the situation. Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) took the initiative and served the affected people with hot meals, dry food packets, medicals supplies, etc.

Situation:

According to the reports, the explosion was as effective as an earthquake with a 3.3 magnitude. As the port of Beirut was affected due to the incident, they can’t rely on other ports as their main entry point. About 300,000 people lost their homes. Due to the explosion, relief operations were hard to initiate.

Over 450,000 Palestinians along with 10,000 Iraqi refugees live in the country of Lebanon. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees claimed that Lebanon has the highest population of refugees in the world.

Lebanon was suffering the poverty situation which was approaching 50% and with Covid-19, things were even more disturbed. Also, the pandemic is the reason that the unemployment rate is now at 25%. Even though the country has a high literacy rate of 95% but it’s getting hard for them to recover from the situation.

HHRD Work:

HHRD partnered with NGOs and took the responsibility for the betterment of the people in Beirut. HHRD has been serving the citizens since 2013 and is a certified International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) in Jordan, where they have a subsidiary office.

For Syrian refugees, which are over a million in population, HHRD has initiated various projects that include emergency relief, Ramadan Food, Healthcare, washrooms, etc. Not only this but a support program for education and Caravan of hopes homes as well.

Projects like in-kind gifts, winter provisions, Ramadan Food, Qurbani, and some other yearly seasonal projects were initiated for the Palestinian refugees and local Lebanese people.

HHRD has taken care of thousands of people after they launched their “Lebanon Humanitarian Fund”. Also, they established a tent in front of Masjid Mohammad Al Ameen as their base and distribution point.

Conclusion

The unforeseeable crisis that Lebanon is facing is very shocking. Due to the port being damaged, they can’t import much of the goods as the other ports aren’t capable of handling such traffic.

HHRD took the initiative and helped the government in handling the situation by taking caking care of the citizens. They provided hot meals, water bottles, dry food, medicines, and other supplies, etc. In short, they were a great help to the people.

HHRD partnered with NGOs and established a network that was taking care of people. HHRD initiated lots of projects for the people of Lebanon and never discriminated against anyone. They provided winter provisions, Ramadan Food, Qurbani, washrooms, education facility, etc. to the people.