Catholic groups help recovery after Beirut explosion | Catholic National Register

At least 16 organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, Caritas International and Aid to the Church in Need, responded.

Following an explosion that killed more than 200 people in Beirut, international Catholic groups responded by providing health services and basic necessities to the victims.

At least 16 Catholic organizations, including Catholic Relief and Caritas International, responded to the August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut.

As victims in Beirut face an urgent need for shelter, medicine, hygiene kits and mental health services, these organizations have dispatched medical teams and relief groups to meet basic needs.

The chemical explosion that killed more than 200 people injured thousands more. Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud estimated that the explosion caused up to $ 10 billion to $ 15 billion in damage and that up to 300,000 people were temporarily displaced from their homes, according to the BBC. “The resignations of three ministers and several deputies have failed to appease the fury”, the BBC reported on August 10, with citizens taken to the streets to protest against corruption and the dangerous storage, since 2014, of ammonium nitrate which denoted, causing the fatal explosion.

Many buildings and warehouses along the docks were completely destroyed and the blast wave from the explosion caused damage within a 6 mile radius. Adjacent areas included the predominantly Christian neighborhoods of Beirut, Mar Maroun and Achrafieh.

Despite the damage caused to their own facilities, CRS rescued the victims of the explosion. Caritas Lebanon provided water and hot meals at several locations in Beirut. Caritas health centers have also opened and a mobile medical unit and a mental health team have been made available to the public.

“Our partners immediately started working to make sure people get help, even if their own buildings were damaged by the blast,” said CRS spokeswoman Megan Gilbert.

“At CRS, we have the privilege of contributing to the extremely generous volunteer response of the Lebanese people, despite everything they have gone through in the past year,” she said on August 6.

Gilbert added: “Many people in Lebanon were struggling to cope even before this explosion. Now, because of the destruction, people are staying in badly damaged houses and even on the streets. They’re going to need long-term support to get by.

International Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) announced emergency food aid of 250,000 euros for the victims.

ACN grant will focus on poor families most affected by the explosion

Father Samer Nassif, a Lebanese priest, told Aid to the Church in Need that the Christian quarter of Beirut is “completely devastated”, with at least 10 churches destroyed.

“In a second, more damage was done to the Christian quarter of Beirut than during the long years of the civil war. We have to rebuild everything from scratch. “

ACN also estimated that approximately 300,000 people were made homeless. In addition, many offices, schools, hospitals and shops were completely destroyed in the explosion.

The priest stressed that amid the country’s long economic crisis and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Lebanon is ill-equipped to deal with this new emergency. International aid is urgently needed to meet the basic needs of the people, he said.

Lebanon is currently facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with corruption and financial mismanagement leading to an unprecedented devaluation of its currency, hyperinflation, rising unemployment and banking restrictions. The health system is also in crisis. Power outages and street protests had rocked the country months before the coronavirus pandemic broke out.

In recent years, Lebanon has hosted large numbers of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, many of whom are Christians, as well as Palestinian refugees. According to official data, Lebanon currently hosts nearly 2 million refugees, or about a third of its total population.

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, called on the international community for help.

“Beirut is a devastated city. Beirut, the wife of the East and the beacon of the West, is injured, ”he said. “It’s a scene of war: there is destruction and desolation in all of its streets, neighborhoods and homes.

Aid to the Church in Need also called for prayer for all those affected by the explosion and other challenges.

“We pray for the victims and their families; and we pray for Lebanon, so that with the commitment of all its social, political and religious components, it can face this tragic and painful moment and, with the help of the international community, overcome the serious crisis that ‘he crosses.