Among the 300,000+ people who were displaced by the Beirut Port explosion are nearly 100,000 children, a recent UNICEF report revealed.
The children of Lebanon had already been suffering enough by the massive economic meltdown and the extended power cuts that made Lebanon’s living conditions unbearable for the most resilient of people.
As if that instability wasn’t enough, the children of Lebanon have been deeply traumatized by the blast they lived, witnessed, or saw in the media.
Those directly impacted have now been forced out of whatever security they enjoyed in their houses and into new areas alien to them, adding to their massive trauma, which effects are not minimal.
In order to keep the estimated 100,000 children displaced by the blast safe, rehabilitate the basic services that help keep them safe, and to provide them with food, water, and other essential needs, UNICEF is appealing for $46.7 million.
The requested funds will be implemented to provide affected children with various forms of support for a period of three months to help them recover from the trauma and secure a safe environment for them to stay in throughout that period.
Some of the money will go to the most vulnerable families that struggle to provide basic needs for their children, as UNICEF revealed in a recent report.
On the other hand, a portion of the funds will be allocated for repairing the damaged water and sanitation systems in some houses and rehabilitating over a dozen primary healthcare centers that serve around 160,000 people.
Similarly, UNICEF will rehabilitate damaged schools and will ensure that children whose homes were damaged by the explosion can resume their in-person or online education.
“We count on our donors to help support the children and families who are affected by this tragedy and who will need all the support they can get to rebuild their lives,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
Other local NGOs are also endeavoring to save the children of Lebanon, and you can too by supporting them:
