Beirut, Lebanon – March 1, 2021
A year after the beginning of the economic crisis in Lebanon and the COVID-19 pandemic, and after the World Bank’s latest forecast that more than half of Lebanon’s population will fall below the poverty line in 2021, the effects of this economic decline are beginning to appear in various living, food, health and other aspects.
Under the title “Together for Lebanon”, the Union of Relief and Development Associations (URDA) launched a humanitarian fundraising campaign to help the most disadvantaged Lebanese families in various regions through the implementation of a number of food and medical relief projects in a country facing four crises that have not been witnessed since the civil war, including the COVID-19 outbreak, the public financial crisis, the monetary crisis, the high exchange rate of the US Dollar, and the Beirut port explosion.
The main objectives of the “Together for Lebanon” campaign are the following: distributing food parcels to 25,000 Lebanese families, sponsorship of 500 disadvantaged Lebanese families, and sponsorship of 1,000 Lebanese orphans. In addition, URDA will be launching a number of medical projects, including: supporting 3 hospitals with mechanical ventilators, providing oxygen-generating devices in homes, covering part of the hospitalization cost that is uncovered by the Ministry of Public Health for COVID-19 patient, and providing Lebanese patient suffering from chronic diseases with medications.
URDA’s General Manager, Mr. Houssam Al-Ghali stressed the importance of launching this humanitarian campaign in light of the difficult circumstances that every Lebanese are going through, explaining: “Poverty is no longer just numbers, reports and statistics, as people are living it and seeing it on a daily basis! The sight of a human being picking up their food from the waste container is no longer disgruntled or deemed unacceptable, instead, it has become a familiar daily reality.” He then added: “Poverty in Lebanon is too evident to hide, and its effects surround the Lebanese from every direction.” Mr. Al-Ghali appealed to all humanitarian organizations as well as local, regional and international donors to help Lebanon through the catastrophic crises that are besetting the Lebanese.