Already facing multiple challenges, the massive explosion which blew apart Beirut’s port district this week couldn’t have come at a worse time for the city, according to Ralph Yaacoub, a World Vision staffer based in the city.
Speaking from Beirut on Friday, Ralph Yaacoub, deputy area manager of Beirut and Mount Lebanon for World Vision, said the city was already in a five day lockdown because of an increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
“And we’re also in a very bad situation in Lebanon because the socio-economic situation is not that good and we’re also struggling with the refugee crisis…” he said, referring to the more than 1.5 million refugees currently in Lebanon, the highest per capita of any nation in the world. “And now over and above we have this explosion which was at the worst time that you could have ever expected.”
Buildings damaged in Tuesday’s blast in Beirut’s port area, Lebanon, on 5th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Mohamed Azakir.
The death toll from the blast – which occurred about 6pm on Wednesday – has risen to at least 145 with some 5,000 people injured and estimates of up to 250,000 people made homeless.
Yaacoub said hospitals and infrastructure in the city have been severely impacted by the explosion.
“It is more than overwhelmed. That is the least that you can say.”
Yaacoub was working at home, some 12.6 kilometres away from the port, due to the coronavirus lockdown when the explosion occurred.
“I really felt…the vibration like a seismic wave,” he said.
World Vision, which has been operating in Lebanon since 1975, has already conducted a rapid needs assessment identifying those most in need including children and vulnerable adults and is aiming to reach as many as 120,000 with its initial response, which will include supplying food, household items and hygiene supplies.
“World Vision is aiming to provide basic assistance and hygiene items to those who were affected, to provide shelter support and also psychological first aid to children as well as care-givers,” said Yaacoub.
Click to see footage from a church service in the parish of St Maron Baouchrieh in Beirut filmed as the explosion occurred. Courtesy World Vision
Hans Bederski, national director at World Vision Lebanon, has expressed concerns that the damage to the port could impact its ability to provide food assistance in the long term.
“The explosion severely impacts our operations and our ability to continue to provide food assistance to the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement. “Once the stocks that are already in the country have run out, getting new stock into the country will be extremely difficult.”
Despite all that the city has been through in recent months, Yaacoub said that while people in Beirut are in shock at what happened with some at first assuming the explosion had been caused by a bomb. Yet he said there remains a sense of hope for the future.
“We do have hope at the end of the day.
World Vision Australia has launched an appeal to help those impacted by the explosion. To donate, head to www.worldvision.com.au/beirut/
