Beirut Disaster - Rotary helps Edinburgh Direct Aid

Following our recent donation in conjunction with our mother club, The Rotary Club of Edinburgh, who have also given financial aid, we received an email from the Project Director Maggie Tookey of Edinburgh Direct Aid, who is in Beirut co-ordinating the work.

“This is Maggie Tookey, the International Project Director for Edinburgh Direct Aid emailing from Beirut. 

Your letter was passed on to me by our office in Edinburgh and I wanted to say a very big thank you for the generous donation that you sent to help our emergency aid work in Beirut. It really makes a big difference in terms of buying glass and wood to meet the endless demand for the repair/replacement/glazing of some of the tens of thousands of windows and doors blasted out by this terrible explosion. 

I really find it difficult to describe the devastation I witnessed when I arrived a few days after the blast. I have worked in earthquake and tsunami disaster zones around the world but the level of damage to a modern skyscraper city like Beirut leaves one speechless! 

Although major repairs have begun, the task is enormous. The economy has collapsed and even the better off families cannot access their money from a non-functioning banking system. For the poor and most vulnerable, the ones EDA is targeting as a priority, the task of repair is impossible. The rain is approaching, and the pressure increases daily on our skilled team of Syrian refugee carpenters and engineers to meet the non-stop demand for urgent help. So, we plough on from 7am until 6pm seven days a week until we can do no more. 

To date we have installed almost 1000 windows and doors securing around 450 houses/families from the elements. We will try to do more, and your donation will help us achieve this. 

So many thanks once again from the whole EDA team. We are very pleased to be given support from the Rotary Club of Leeds.”

If you would like to make a donation to work being carried out or want more information just follow the link: 

https://edinburghdirectaid.org/donations.htm