WASHINGTON — As a city and a country continue to clean up from a devastating explosion, two best friends are trying to make things easier for those who are left to rebuild.
Natalie Rejeili and Nicole Fattouche formed LoveLiBeirut, an organization that’s dedicated to sending supplies to those impacted by a deadly explosion that happened in the Port of Beirut earlier in August.
“The idea actually happened the day of the explosion, she was waking up for night shift, she’s a nurse and I was at work. We were seeing a lot of what was happening and Beirut is where a lot of our friends and family live and based off what they were saying and seeing all the houses destroyed, we wanted to do something,” says Natalie, a nursing student.
“When the explosion happened, I had spoken with my grandmother, and my aunt and my cousins and they were all directly effected by what happened. I cried, she cried, and we were both upset about everything that was happening, we knew we had to help,” says Nicole, a critical care nurse.
The supply drive for the explosion that claimed nearly 200 lives went down at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church on Saturday. Among the items collected were baby supplies, medical supplies, clothing, food and of course PPE as the country deals with the Coronavirus outbreak on top of rebuilding. Getting the supplies to Lebanon, which is almost 6,000 miles away, is no easy task as well.
“Obliviously shipping items would be the quickest way to get there so we’ll be sending medical and hygiene supplies that way and we’ll be sending a lot of the clothing and food by ship. Right there they’re receiving so much food and supplies that we want to keep it continuous; we don’t want to throw everything at them, we want to stay okay with what they’re consistently receiving,” says Natalie.
The outreach from the community was one that more than surprised the two who start the idea on a whim. Traffic was backed up around the Washington, D.C. church and the aid filled the basement of the church, moving vans were coming in and out all day to pick up supplies to get them ready to ship.
“Honestly, I think I’m at a lost for words by the support we got from the community. It makes me think there are good people, there are good people,” says Natalie.
“We did not expect this many people to outreach to us to donate to us. It is a little upsetting knowing that something bad made this happen, but it’s really nice knowing that all these people came together to realize that we are one and we need to help each other out in times of need,” says Nicole.
Faith in humanity restored in a year that has been like none other.