Dear Gossips,
Even before yesterday’s tragedy in Beirut, the people of Lebanon were struggling through an economic crisis and the healthcare system was overwhelmed by COVID-19. Today there are hundreds still missing from the explosions and hundreds of thousands of people are now displaced and homeless. Recovery efforts are ongoing but they need a lot of help.
I have made a donation to the Lebanese Red Cross and if you are able to as well, please click here or see below for a list of resources:
At the risk of being blunt: "thoughts & prayers" are not enough. Lebanon's financial crisis escalated in recent months, intensified by the pandemic + long-running political corruption. The blast is the last thing it needs right now. Here are ways to help: https://t.co/T0X9NtY6gp
— Elias Jahshan | الياس جهشان (@Elias_Jahshan) August 5, 2020
To learn more about the existing conditions in Lebanon and how its citizens were already in a desperate situation, here’s a good podcast that was just posted this week summarising the chaotic political and financial landscape of the country. For a more personal take, Lebanese author Naji Bakhti’s essay about Lebanon’s “social catastrophe”, which was written by candlelight, was also just published days before and puts a face and family story to the compounded devastation that’s happening now.
And if you haven’t already, check out this video of a rescue team freeing a survivor after ten hours this morning. These are the helpers, the heroes, the people who are exhausted and trying to push through, literally.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
