End of August Update
I thought I would give you an update since there is so much going on every day. Twenty-four days since the blast, and still no one knows for sure what caused it. Why was the explosive material there? Who ordered and paid for it? Nothing to give affected citizens information they can use to start processing or having closure.
The number of injured surpassed 7,000, 50 are still missing, and over 200 dead. Four major hospitals were destroyed. Many nations (France, Italy, Morocco) have sent field hospitals to help with the number of wounded, as the medical sector almost collapsed in Lebanon. The funerals have slowed down thankfully, as they were being televised nonstop, adding more to the collective pain of all watching them.
Foreign aid and commitments have started to slow down, it seems that this story is no longer front and center, in a world that is full of drama. Still, we are thankful for the help received, and pray it goes to the right place and falls in the right hands.
Our team and partners have been very busy with the recovery efforts on a large scale. I am sharing some stats with you, just to give you an idea of the size of response and capabilities our team and partners have. These stats cover the period of August 5th until August 28th.
72,000 volunteer hours
502 personnel involved in our recovery projects
Number of meals and water bottles served - 12,500
Number of individuals helped with medication - 97
Number of Hygiene kits distributed - 512
Number of homes rehabbed - 19
Next week, we are excited to add two new partners and projects to our growing consortium.
Project 1
Project #1 is medical in its nature. A nurse will serve 40-50 elderly per month. She will change bandages, check on prescriptions, drive the patients to see a GP to renew prescriptions, then procure it for them. Some of the elderly will be driven to their PT appointments, while those requiring the help of a psychiatrist will also be served. We have contracted with a GP, a PT center and a Psychiatrist who will offer us their services at a discounted rate.
Project 2
Project #2 is focused on furniture and home repairs. This partner has a mobile van they use as a shop. They will drive to locations we identify, take the tools to the house, repair broken furniture, window frames, chairs, beds. We provided him the funding to buy his cordless tools, since a large part of the explosion site lost all power. This partner is incredibly talented in how they repair things, giving those affected the chance to re-purpose what they lost versus throwing it away. It allows them to save money they do not have to replace them, and to keep memories of things they hold dear to them. Trying to get back to a sense of normalcy is important, however that looks for every affected person.
I am also working on a trauma healing project. We have done many trainings before, this time it is different. Recent mental health surveys show that 85% of those affected asked for mental health help. They spoke of nightmares, anxiety, loss of appetite, and depression. This project is difficult because culturally, this whole subject is taboo. Still, there needs to be a focus on this, and we are trying to see what set up works best. COVID-19 makes it hard to do any group sessions, and 1 to 1 is taxing on manpower and logistics. My hope is to raise enough funds to resource an entity that is solely focused on this sector, and we just help them scale up, or add more professionals to their ranks. Children will be our main focus, given their vulnerability and the way this affects them.
Our team continues with the home refurbishing. It is slow going because the large repair companies refuse to do one offs. They rather take on large projects (whole buildings). Given our limited resources, we decided to do a lot of the prep work ourselves, then take the repaired frames to glass shops, have them install the glass, and then come back and install the windows ourselves.
I want to thank you for being a part of this recovery effort, for your generous support, prayers, and emails. We feel good with what we are doing, we are seeing tangible results, and best of all, we are providing hope for the hopeless. I thank God for social media, where you can see the journey for yourselves. If you have not shared our posts and website with friends, family, and church, please do so. The more we get on board to pray, help, and advocate, the more we can get done.
Here is a link with pictures from my trip.
Thank you again for being part of the WAM family, we are humbled by your trust, prayers, and support.
www.wamcares.org