Explosions in Beirut: "My city is destroyed but I am proud to be Lebanese"

Beirut woke up for the fifth consecutive day in the middle of the rubble, with a crater 43 meters deep in its heart. Less than a week after the double explosion that occurred on August 4 in the port area and which left more than 150 dead and around 6,000 injured, the rescue services are still trying to find possible survivors. As international aid travels to the Lebanese capital, volunteers and employees of non-governmental organizations engaged in the field are hard at work. Like Patricia Khoder, communication manager for the NGO Care and living in Beirut, contacted by France 24, who admits to always being in "state of shock".

In Beirut, the time of anger: "It is here, on this rubble, that they must all be hanged" | Arabnews en https://t.co/2sZKx0T7l6

France 24: How did you experience this double explosion?

Patricia Khoder: I was in the offices of the NGO Care, in the district of Badaro, [in the business center in the heart of the city] at the time of the explosions. We heard two large explosions, we thought at first that it was an attack perpetrated against the building in which we were. Then we went out and saw a huge mushroom in the sky. I immediately went to the port and I could see that the quarters of Gemmayzé, Achrafiyé, Dora, or even Mar Mikhael had been blown away, there was nothing left. I immediately listened to the news and understood that Beirut was gone, that my city had left. These are neighborhoods where I lived, where I grew up. All my youth was there.

Four days after the tragedy, I am still in shock. Unable to feel anything. Since the explosions, I have only slept 12 hours. I can't sleep, I can't even cry, I still don't realize what happened. I discover every day that a person I loved has died, that a place has disappeared. We still need a lot of time to take stock of human, material and more to begin to mourn.

I manage to hold on thanks to my work within the NGO Care. Since Tuesday, I have fully focused on my mission. The fact that we can deliver food, raise funds for Lebanon, is what matters most to me now.

What have you been doing within the NGO since the explosions? 

I take care of communication but I have been in the field for two days distributing food, via local NGOs which are very active and thanks to the help of Care France, for the neighborhoods most affected by the disease. explosion. These are neighborhoods in the midst of gentrification, but which are mainly inhabited by poor people, who have nothing and have nowhere to go.

We have started distributing food parcels in which you can find rice, flour, pasta but also canned food that can be eaten immediately because many of the victims no longer have a home or kitchen. They are in the street. We started with food, but we hope to quickly be able to distribute many other things. Lebanon needs everything and now: medicine - two hospitals have been blown up and are no longer operational - field hospitals, clothes, mattresses, sheets, beds, etc. We also lack certain materials to rebuild. In particular, there is a shortage of glass because all the windows in the city have been shattered and there is not enough glass in the country to meet the demand. In the meantime, the Lebanese put cardboard boxes, plexiglass, others simply have nothing and continue to sleep in their homes without roofs or facades so as not to be robbed of what little they have left. 

Others simply no longer have a home. There are 300,000 people living on the streets. But in two months, the first rains will arrive, the cold too. We will have to find solutions for them.

How do you see the future?

I don't think about the future. I have no tomorrow, I am like my city. There is a very strong trauma that prevents you from projecting yourself in time. But the Lebanese are strong, they are a worthy people. I was very surprised to see their resilience: the day after the explosions, people were cleaning the streets, clearing the debris. It is very difficult to break the will of the Lebanese.

This does not take away from the difficulty of our new daily life. I lived through the war in Beirut but I never saw anything of this magnitude. But what I see around me makes me proud, my city is destroyed, it is on the ground, but when I see the solidarity that is organized around me, when I see this will to clean up, to continue and to move on. forward but if we don't have a tomorrow, I tell myself that I am proud of my people, proud to be Lebanese.

We are obviously very sensitive to messages coming from all over the world. We need courage, the hope of the whole world. We have been living without hope for a long time. Today, more than ever, we need the hope of the whole world. And it is the international community that will give it back to us. This is why it is necessary to make donations to international NGOs and Lebanese associations to help Beirut recover.

The summary of the week France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 application