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Hello, John,

My name is Elias, and I work for the IRC in Beirut.

I wanted to share with you my personal account following the devastating explosion in our beautiful city.

My internet connection hasn't been strong, but I wanted to quickly share my experience to give you a perspective from the ground. I also wanted to share how much hope and goodwill I am seeing here in wake of the disaster. (I will try to attach some of my photos to the bottom of this email. See more below.)

I remember I was standing in front of the IRC office waiting for a taxi. I was on my phone, leaving a voicemail for a friend I was supposed to meet later that day — the eerie sound of the blast is immortalized in that message.

In a matter of seconds, the whole scene turned into a war zone. Shattered glass was falling everywhere, and cars in the streets collided. I heard screams and shouting. I felt hopeless and I didn’t know what to do.

The phone lines finally started working and I managed to contact my sister and my family and friends to ensure they were safe and unharmed.

In the wake of the explosion, I joined one of the volunteer groups providing assistance and was assigned to lead a team of six people I had never met before. We started clearing debris from buildings in Mar Mkhayel and Bourj Hammoud, both areas that had seen a lot of destruction. We also reported the needs of people in these houses — food, shelter, medical assistance — back to our base camp.

In one of the houses, an elderly couple offered us some cold water, in spite of having lost their refrigerator. I almost cried: This couple had lost everything — their home, their car, their money at the bank because of Lebanon's ongoing economic crisis — and yet they were still insisting on offering us some water.

Hundreds of Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians and people of many other backgrounds are all working side-by-side to respond to the disaster. These volunteers of different ethnicities, religious views, sexual orientations, genders and nationalities came together to support those who have lost everything. They forgot about their differences and focused on what matters: our shared humanity.

I hope we have learned something from this massive explosion. I hope we have learned that our differences are only limitations if we allow them to be. I hope we have learned how to rise above discrimination, abuse and harassment.

And, above all, I hope we have learned how to unite and stand together — because this is the only beacon of hope we have left.

In solidarity and with hope,

Elias El Beam
Communications Manager, Lebanon
International Rescue Committee

P.S. We are deeply thankful for the support of our incredible community at this urgent hour of need. If you haven't yet donated to this emergency response, can you chip in to help the IRC in Lebanon rush assistance directly to the people affected by the explosion?

The needs are rising by the day in Beirut and we are now experiencing a local displacement crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people unable to go home.

Your gift will allow families to meet their immediate needs in the aftermath of this terrible incident and support them to get back on their feet. With your help, we can provide immediate cash and economic assistance to those impacted and displaced by the blast in Beirut.

Use this link to send your support directly to the IRC here in Lebanon, anything you can send will help » [link removed]

Thank you again. - Elias


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