It’s hard to avoid the heart-stopping imagery of a mushroom cloud consuming not only a city, but countless lives that have yet to be totaled. It’s hard to watch the video footage of the explosion in Beirut knowing that a city, with real lives, families, livelihoods demolished in seconds. It’s hard to sit in our safety knowing that a country and a people need help to survive.
The New York Times reports that this fatal blast in Lebanon’s capital city could be felt 150 miles away, as it killed more than 100 people and injured at least 4,000 by the latest tallies. An Instagram post shared by actor Jameela Jamil explains just why this fatal blast hits the country and the city extra hard, citing social, political, economic, and health crises that have only exacerbated the explosion’s effects.
So what can we, those hundreds and thousands of miles away, do to help?
According to the New York Times, there are a number of legitimate ways we can try help citizens of Beirut’s during these trying times:
- Nonprofit organization Impact Lebanon has a crowdfunding campaign in place to help local organizations, as well as share information about those still missing following the explosion.
- Baytna Baytak is a charity “that provided free housing to health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic,” and now, they are helping to raise money in union with Impact Lebanon shelter some of the over 300,000 people in Beirut who have been displaced by the explosoion.
- The Lebanese Red Cross, the country’s “main provider of ambulance services,” has been dispatching every ambulance they have from a variety of nearby locations. One-time donations can help their search and rescue, as well as their treatment of wounded on the ground.
Another way to help victims as shared by CNN is through the Impact Your World donation portal, launched in partnership with the news outlet and Public Good. Donations through this portal benefit a number of organizations, including the International Medical Corps.
So what matters today is help. It’s aiding those we don’t even know and will likely never meet. What matters today is taking a second to stop what we’re doing and give to those who need it most right now.
What matters today, and every day, is standing in solidarity with our global community, and remembering that when one falls, we all fall. And when one rises, we all rise together.
What Matters Today 