By Nabih Jabr | Under-Secretary General Lebanese Red Cross
The Beirut Port Explosion of the 4th of August 2020 left more than 50,000 families in dire need of aid. Combined with the COVID19 crisis and the unprecedented economic crisis with a massive devaluation of the local currency, thousands of these families became particularly vulnerable and were not able to address their basic needs.
The Lebanese Red Cross rapdily set up a direct cash assistance program aiming to provide 300 USD (in USD not in local currency), to at least 10,000 families, for a period of 7 months.
Four months later, the Lebanese Red Cross has reached 9800 of the minumum objective of 10,000 families. The families were selected based on the results of more than 30,000 assessments done by the Lebanese Red Cross teams, to help identify and support the most vulnerable families among the affected population.
These families received an ATM card which they use on a monthly basis to address their most urgent needs for food, medicine, healthcare, small repars and education. This approach allows the beneficiary to identify his or her own priorities in all dignity, and contributes to helping the local market to recover.
The GlobalGiving contributions of 171,000 USD (at date of writing this report) have allowed the Lebanese Red Cross to provide one month of basic assistance support to more than 570 families. The cost of providing this aid remains under 5%, and is restricted to the cost of the banking services (ATM cards, loading of the cards, and associated bank fees) and the cost of delivering the aid (training of volunteers, hotline operation for technical assitance, transportation costs).
The Lebanese Red Cross extends its heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed, and we renew our committment to continue responding to this crisis as well as to provide our vital free ambulance and blood services across Lebanon, in all impartiality and neutrality, in accordance with the seven Fundamental Principles of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
