For decades, Lebanese expats have been supporting and acting as the backbone of Lebanon, either through financial transfers or with their expertise and experience. They have proudly raised the name of Lebanon high.
Today, we’re seeing a group of Lebanese students in Montpellier, France, collecting donations, including medicines, food, medical supplies, clothes, school supplies, food, water, children’s books and games, hygiene products, and diapers.
They have already dispatched all these donations to Lebanon, to be allocated to Offre Joie, Beit El-Baraka, Les Filles de la Charite, and AUBMC, depending on the needs of each one of them.
Volunteering with Amicale Du Liban and under the supervision and assistance of the association’s diligent board, the Lebanese diaspora started working as soon as the second day of the explosion.
Even the mayor of Montpellier played a huge part by trying to give them all the facilities possible and setting up a place so they can work.
“We worked non-stop for almost 10 days,” Lara Daouk, one of the Lebanese volunteers working with Amicale Du Liban, told The961.
“Last Saturday, the mayor let us put a stand in the city center to collect donations and it was a huge success. Everything we sent makes the equivalent of 40 [shipping] pallets full of supplies that will arrive in Lebanon in the next 5 or 6 days,” she explained.
The phenomenal volunteers of this campaign have worked as efficiently as possible for almost 12 days, and have created and organized the most active ways to spread awareness on the crisis in Beirut.
In a nearby city in Sete, they campaigned for donations by distributing flyers with the food needs. They managed to collect a lot of food and hygiene products.
“We have more projects for the future to keep on collecting and sending help,” Lara shared with us.
The country has been shaken by multiple crises in recent months, but seeing the Lebanese diaspora coming together in strength and unity, and dedicating all possible efforts to help those affected in their homeland is truly heartwarming.
