By Nabih Jabr | Under-Secretary General
One year after the explosion that destroyed a big part of Lebanon's capital Beirut on the 4th of August 2020, one year after the lives of more than 50,000 families were so severely disrupted by this tragic event, the initial committment of the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) to provide direct financial support to at least 10,000 of those families has been achieved and exceeded.
Thanks to the contributions of so many donors from around the world, the LRC was able to provide this support till now to 10,817 families, all of which received 300 USD per months, for 7 months, for a total of almost 23 million USD distributed in aid. It is important to note that to preserve the value of the donations, all of this aid was provided as unconditional cash donations, in USD rather than in local currency.
This has helped these families to meet their basic needs, and has alleviated some of their suffering and pain following this event. In parallel, the Lebanese Lira, the local currency, has lost more than 90% of its value, thereby making recovery much more difficult for these families, and making the unconditional cash aid even more relevant.
At the same time, and in an increasingly challenging and unstable context, the LRC is now refocusing its efforts on ensuring the continuity of its vital public services, and on responding in the most relevant way possible, and at the scale of the country, to the multiple ongoing crises.
Our priorities are:
1. Continue providing free emergency medical care (ambulance service) to all the population in Lebanon (140,000 persons per year on average), despite the complete loss of local funding for this service.
2. Increase the number of blood units that are collected, tested and prepared to support patients in all hospitals (more than 42,000 blood units delivered annually)
3. Scale up our capacity to deliver vital life-saving medicine for free to 200,000 persons per year, compared to 50,000 persons in 2021
3. Continue responding to the ongoing COVID19 crisis: ambulance response, vaccinations, awareness campaigns, O2 machines and home visits
5. Raise funds to be able to continue supporting the most vulnerable among the 10,817 Beirut families that received aid from LRC and that still have no other sources of income
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