Beirut Relief Fund 2020
On Tuesday, August 4th, an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon devastated many parts of the city. The blast claimed the lives of 200 people, with many still missing, as well as injuring 6,000 and leaving 300,000 homeless. NEO staff are safe. The NEO offices, some staff homes and vehicles have sustained damage. The day after the explosion, the team started reaching out to those affected across the city by providing cleaning assistance, food, supplies, and counseling.
Even before the explosion, Lebanon has been in the midst of a financial and political collapse for most of the last year, all of which has been made worse by the COVID crisis. In the last six months one million of Lebanon’s four million residents who were not poor have newly entered poverty. NEO began providing food and supplies to 350 families throughout Lebanon and the need continues to grow. Each crisis spun off by the explosion will provide a new challenge and will necessitate new thinking and creative solutions. There are financial crises to work through, food crises, energy crises, security crises, healthcare crises … and of course there is still Covid-19 and the country’s financial collapse and political morass.
NEO (Novo’s partner in the Middle East) was founded in 2005 and headquartered out of Beirut and now has 110 national staff serving in Lebanon and across 15 other countries. We believe God has called us to facilitate sustainable movements of the gospel in this region of the world. While what has transpired in these initial years has been extraordinary, we are convinced it is only the tip of the iceberg of what could happen. Based on what we have already seen—proven, reputable results over the past decade—the impact on this region could be transformative.
How You Can Help
Many have been asking how they can help with this crisis. We have been working to develop a plan based on the needs in front of us. We invite you to join us as we:
Provide regular daily meals for those affected by the blast.
Clean and assess the damage to houses and businesses in the center of the city.
Organize an outdoor day camp for kids.
Hold trauma training for local organizations and churches who are caring for those in their communities.
Join us in this effort using the form below.