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Kayu Orellana, Program Coordinator Help - Helping people to help themselves "We're going into a destroyed apartment."
Kayu Orellana from the German aid organization "Help - Help for Self-Help" in one of the innumerable houses that were destroyed on August 4th in Beirut.
Kayu Orellana, program coordinator Help - helping people to help themselves "Broken windows, there are broken pieces everywhere, the whole city is full of broken pieces."
At 6:08 p.m. local time, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had exploded in the port of the city. The cause was apparently a fire in a warehouse. More than 200 people died, thousands were injured, and buildings within a radius of several kilometers were damaged or destroyed.
Hekmat Kai, baker
"I've been through the war and hard times, but I've never seen anything like it."
Tens of thousands of people are suddenly homeless - many to this day.
Rita Faraj Oghlo, nail salon employee "It's very difficult for us. Our house has been destroyed, we have no place to stay. My husband is injured and we don't know how to pay for his operation."
Like first responders from all over the world, Kayu Orellana flies to Beirut the day after the disaster. Together with a partner organization, he organizes first aid.
Miriam Younes, Office Manager Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Beirut
"When you are in Beirut, you still feel as if it had only just happened."
Miriam Younes lives in Beirut. She works for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and is involved in various aid projects, including collecting money for the treatment of children with cancer with the organization "Karma".
Miriam Younes, Office Manager Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Beirut "I think that it really is with the children, because I know that no treatment has been interrupted for a long time, which is always a very big danger with cancer. But the second The problem is: Now of course you also have children and young people who are directly affected by the explosion. And then you have those who are somehow indirectly affected. And then everything is missing everywhere. I think the biggest problem is that this disaster is happening now in the greatest economic crisis Lebanon has ever experienced. "
The former civil war country was already in crisis before August 4th: a large part of the population lives in poverty, the political elite is hated, the health system is underfunded. And then came the explosion that damaged several hospitals as well.
Miriam Younes, Office Manager Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Beirut ”And of course that has also been an issue in the last few months due to Coruna et cetera that they are more and more reaching their limits. I think that's a bit of the absurd that we've always talked about it beforehand, heard every time: It can't really go on like this if we now have more cases. Where is this going to lead? Then suddenly we have a situation where hospitals are more or less completely destroyed. "
The extent of the destruction - a challenge for those who helped too.
Kayu Orellana, Program Coordinator Help - Help for Self-Help ”We cannot help everyone. We just have to understand that from the start. "
Help helps old people and people with disabilities to rebuild their homes, such as the Hamouds, in whose house three elderly family members live. These and other families were placed through Help's local partner.
Kayu Orellana, Program Coordinator Help - Help for Self-Help "That is exactly the reason why international NGOs should get used to working more with local partners. But you have to do the same, and that is of course also a sensitive point, but that actually applies to them throughout the Middle East, one must of course pay particular attention to corruption issues. "
Corruption is widespread in Lebanon; it is slowing down reconstruction because it has to be checked very carefully whether aid funds are actually being received. Many Lebanese have lost confidence in the state - and after the explosion took the cleanup work into their own hands.
Kayu Orellana, program coordinator Help - helping people to help themselves "We were particularly impressed by the young people. In the first few days, all parts of the city where there was major damage were really packed with youth associations. There were all kinds of people, all kinds of youth groups , the communist youth, some scout groups and all sorts of things, church organizations, all sorts of things, by the thousands on the streets and have removed the worst that they could do themselves. I haven't seen that in the form that people do that So confidently and proudly take it into your own hands. Impressive. "
Miriam Younes, Office Manager Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Beirut "But it not only has this humanitarian character, it is also a bit of a very, very great anger behind it. What have you actually done to us? You saw that in the protests . "
Many Lebanese do not believe that the background to the disaster will be clarified.
Miriam Younes, Office Manager Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Beirut "Of course that leaves a future uncertainty. It wasn't an earthquake. Who knows what is still in this city and who knows what can happen. So I believe that is what makes the city so difficult at the moment. That you just have the feeling that you are actually nowhere safe. "
Kayu Orellana, Program Coordinator Help - Help for Self-Help "We are now on the first construction site and are trying to get a final picture before we leave. The German team will travel back to Germany tomorrow morning."
Kayu Orellana is back in Germany, a Lebanese project manager is continuing his work in Lebanon. Reconstruction will be an act of strength that Lebanon cannot manage on its own. The UN asked the international community for aid; an estimated 300,000 people are dependent on support. Added to this are all other needy people, such as refugees from Syria, who are not directly affected by the explosion. The distribution struggle for outside aid is likely to get tougher.