“The day of the explosion we were sitting outside. The children were playing; my daughter was sitting, waiting for a call from work. All of a sudden, the explosion occurred. My daughter was thrown in the air, a window shattered on her, leaving wounds on her head.” Alice, a mother of seven, saw the world fall all around her. The explosion in the port of Beirut destroyed part of her house leaving her, her seven children, and six nephews with dire economic difficulties.
“My daughter is 30 years old, and after that disastrous incident she was fired. She was caring for an elderly woman. When her employer saw her arm in a cast, caused by the fall during the explosion, he decided to relieve her of her duty, afraid she was not going to be able to carry out her caregiving responsibilities fully.” Alice’s family is able to survive with great difficulty. The explosion has greatly damaged their house: the door to the bathroom blown apart, glass shattered all through the home. Everything blew away that day.
INTERSOS knocked on Alice’s door: Our workers talked to her and her family, asking them what their most urgent needs were and distributing basic goods. “That day, we were finally able to eat a bowl of pasta,” says Alice, “we did not even have dishes, everything was destroyed.” Over 3,000 civilians have received assistance from our organization for the reconstruction and renovation of homes damaged following the disaster of August 4th 2020.