On behalf of the Class of 1979 of Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan, we are raising funds for our friend and classmate, Ms. Nada Debs, who suffered the complete destruction of her business in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4, 2020.

As has been widely reported in the international media, on 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut exploded, causing at least 181 deaths, 6,000 injuries, US$10–15 billion in property damage, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.



Nada is a Lebanese designer living and working in Beirut. Her work spans scale and discipline: from product and furniture design to one-off commissions across craft, art, fashion and interiors. What ties her work together is her ability to distill culture and craftsmanship to create pieces of emotional resonance.

Nada grew up in Japan, studied design at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States and has spent significant periods of time living and traveling the world, finding connections between different cultures. Over the years, she built up her business to include a team of 20 designers to create the Nada Debs Studio and Nada Debs Boutique.

What connects her world is a belief in the power of design to cross time and border and touch us on a primal level. She believes not just in form and function, but in feeling too. Nada believes in the importance of human stories. She places value on connection - to places, to others and to our own identity within the wider world. She is fascinated by the role of the human hand to tell stories and evoke a sense of belonging. She describes her belief in craft as a feeling that goes beyond geography, language and culture.


Unfortunately, with the blast of August 4th everything that Nada built up over the years was destroyed in seconds.

Nada explains: "Our Boutique was completely destroyed and is on Gouraud Street, which was once a bustling street full of galleries, grocery shops, coffee shops and restaurants. Most of the small businesses are getting help from NGOs to get back their spaces. For us, since everything is totally destroyed, we felt that we should keep our space as more of a memorial space, keeping the damaged mirrors and ceiling and doing minimum work to get it back on track. One idea that we have had, as we try to rebuild, is to create unique furniture and objects made up of the broken pieces of wood and glass that we have picked up throughout the clean-up and to sell them to support other NGOs. We would also like to create a co-working space in our studio to support other start-up designers and interns who need space to work since we have internet and printing capacities and a team of designers who can support them."


Donations received will be used for rebuilding the Studio and Boutique as well as replacing lost inventory and supplies.


Please donate to help Nada rebuild her business, and the community of artists and entrepreneurs in Beirut of which she is a part.