“What happened was so infuriating to me. A sudden strong and strange voice blasted the empty skies of Beirut a couple of nights ago. The curtains were closed so I couldn’t spot where exactly the blast was coming from and I was almost 100% sure that it’s yet another explosion ripping through Beirut.
I was so puzzled, and I couldn’t see a thing. I imagined some sort of missile or airplane causing this sound that hit us in Beirut that night. I jumped out of my bed like a lunatic and waited for the glass to be shattered around. I stayed away from the windows while a thousand scenarios were running through my head. I thought of almost every possible tragic reason behind this sound except that it was thunder, just thunder.
In that particular moment, I forgot that there is something called thunder which announces the approach of winter every Fall. I forgot that there is a normal life out there that is going on in parallel with the hundreds of tragedies that are still hitting us. I forgot that such things can and will happen despite the many traumas that have left us so shaken, so scared and so pessimistic.
For a moment, I felt sorry for myself and as I looked outside my window at the first winter rain, the memories of the 4th of August came back to me and hit me like a ton of bricks.” – Beirut resident
Under the UNFPA project, URDA’s Protection Sector is still providing psychosocial support for women, however, the need is still great and more efforts must be made to reach everyone affected whether in Beirut or across the country.