By International Rescue Committee | International Rescue Committee
The explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4th, 2020 – which killed over 160 people and wounded 5,000 – has left an additional 300,000 people displaced. This crisis comes on top of an already looming threat of economic collapse, and threat of increasing scarcity of food connected to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The International Rescue Committee is providing emergency cash and protection assistance - including psychological first aid - to those impacted and displaced by the blast. We are prioritizing children, families and individuals who were residing in blast-affected areas; suffered high levels of property damage or destruction of immediate livelihoods; and individuals and families with limited resources to cope with the effects of the damage to property and wellbeing. This includes persons with disabilities (both new and pre-existing), older persons without support networks, female-headed households, and families who have suffered physical injuries and/or severe psychological distress.
In the hospitals, we have been providing children with psychological support as they wait for news of their loved ones, and now - with their caregivers well enough to be discharged - we have been providing emergency cash assistance to help them get back on their feet. In some cases, they and their families have been unable to return home due to the damage, so our cash assistance has been ensuring that they have somewhere safe to stay and are able to buy food and other basic necessities.
Our child protection tent has been providing a safe space for children in Karantina - one of the areas closest to the site of the explosion - to play and receive psychosocial support from dedicated case workers deployed from our programmes across Lebanon. This is a mobile tent and is being deployed where the need is determined to be the greatest.
Your gift will allow families to meet their immediate needs in the aftermath of this terrible incident and support them to get back on their feet.
Please donate now to directly assist the people of Beirut.
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