Help Couple Rebuild Their Life in Beirut
Donation protected
Hi there, thank you for reading this.
I am Cecile and I set up this emergency GoFundMe page to raise money for my dear friend Joelle and her girlfriend as they have been affected very badly by the explosion that occurred in Beirut on the 4th of August and they really need your help.
A little information about me and how this page came to be :
I am half lebanese half dutch and I currently live in the Netherlands. I shared 6 beautiful years of friendship with Joelle and to see her go through this trauma has been the hardest thing for me. Unfortunetly, I couldn't help financially but since in Lebanon it is very complicated to open a GoFundMe page, Joelle has asked me to help out by setting up a page from Holland and managing it for her.
I cannot with my own words explain what they went through and still are going through so here's a message from Joelle :
''To start with thank you for reading this, we already think of you as a family member, because that’s what families are for. My name is Joelle, I am here to ask for your help, as I would ask my brother or sister or mother.
It’s been almost 20 days since the life we knew got shattered. All of our hopes, all of our plans for a good future came to a halt; it’s almost like none of that was real. Among all those who lost their lives or that of their loved ones, among those who lost their family homes and livelihood, among those who lost themselves we stand, my partner, and myself. We’ve been struggling for so long to stand in the face of discrimination, threats, homophobia, and drastic economic situation. We took a blow after the other, until the final blow came on the 4th of August where we literally almost lost our lives. We both lost the jobs we held in Mar Mkhael and Gemmayze area, the areas that took the blow the hardest, our shops were destroyed, literally nothing was left to go back to. Our small house, our family home, was greatly damaged, the walls are all cracked, the windows and doors are gone, along with all of the belongings we have worked a lot to get. With our savings gone and with the very low hope of finding any job soon due to the current financial crisis and 40% unemployment rate in Lebanon, we now face sheer poverty. We literally would not be able afford to pay a house rent for next month, and to think of what is to come make us very scared. We do not deserve this.
But we are Lebanese, and if anything we do rise from the ashes, but for that we need your help. We need your help to move out to a house where it is safe to live and get some furniture, we need your help to go to therapy to deal with the trauma we have, we need your help to pay for our day to day expenses. We need your help so we can also help our friends who, like us were left injured, traumatized, impoverished, and without a shelter in a country run by ruthless, careless, and murderers of rulers.
I hope my call out for help goes beyond the borders of nationality, ethnicity, religion or the lack of it, and beyond all the borders we set to ourselves and each other straight into your hearts, because in all of that is in this life, we, who have pure hearts will prevail with love. ''
In these times of need and tragedy, we must stand together and no matter how much you can give, it's all very helpful and very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Please note that I will do everything I can to ensure that the donated amount is transferred transparently and in full. The goal is to send the amount to Joelle in USD and via a bank transfer service such as western union or OMT. As soon as we get a little bit of donations in, I will start posting updates on the situation regarding the money transfer.
(I will leave below some pictures of the couple's home in the aftermath and the streets around their house. I will also link a couple of videos (that I have uploaded on my youtube channel for the purpose of this page) taken by Joelle herself in the aftermath around her workplace. And the last video linked is the recording of the security cameras inside Joelle's workplace DURING the explosion.)
I am Cecile and I set up this emergency GoFundMe page to raise money for my dear friend Joelle and her girlfriend as they have been affected very badly by the explosion that occurred in Beirut on the 4th of August and they really need your help.
A little information about me and how this page came to be :
I am half lebanese half dutch and I currently live in the Netherlands. I shared 6 beautiful years of friendship with Joelle and to see her go through this trauma has been the hardest thing for me. Unfortunetly, I couldn't help financially but since in Lebanon it is very complicated to open a GoFundMe page, Joelle has asked me to help out by setting up a page from Holland and managing it for her.
I cannot with my own words explain what they went through and still are going through so here's a message from Joelle :
''To start with thank you for reading this, we already think of you as a family member, because that’s what families are for. My name is Joelle, I am here to ask for your help, as I would ask my brother or sister or mother.
It’s been almost 20 days since the life we knew got shattered. All of our hopes, all of our plans for a good future came to a halt; it’s almost like none of that was real. Among all those who lost their lives or that of their loved ones, among those who lost their family homes and livelihood, among those who lost themselves we stand, my partner, and myself. We’ve been struggling for so long to stand in the face of discrimination, threats, homophobia, and drastic economic situation. We took a blow after the other, until the final blow came on the 4th of August where we literally almost lost our lives. We both lost the jobs we held in Mar Mkhael and Gemmayze area, the areas that took the blow the hardest, our shops were destroyed, literally nothing was left to go back to. Our small house, our family home, was greatly damaged, the walls are all cracked, the windows and doors are gone, along with all of the belongings we have worked a lot to get. With our savings gone and with the very low hope of finding any job soon due to the current financial crisis and 40% unemployment rate in Lebanon, we now face sheer poverty. We literally would not be able afford to pay a house rent for next month, and to think of what is to come make us very scared. We do not deserve this.
But we are Lebanese, and if anything we do rise from the ashes, but for that we need your help. We need your help to move out to a house where it is safe to live and get some furniture, we need your help to go to therapy to deal with the trauma we have, we need your help to pay for our day to day expenses. We need your help so we can also help our friends who, like us were left injured, traumatized, impoverished, and without a shelter in a country run by ruthless, careless, and murderers of rulers.
I hope my call out for help goes beyond the borders of nationality, ethnicity, religion or the lack of it, and beyond all the borders we set to ourselves and each other straight into your hearts, because in all of that is in this life, we, who have pure hearts will prevail with love. ''
In these times of need and tragedy, we must stand together and no matter how much you can give, it's all very helpful and very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Please note that I will do everything I can to ensure that the donated amount is transferred transparently and in full. The goal is to send the amount to Joelle in USD and via a bank transfer service such as western union or OMT. As soon as we get a little bit of donations in, I will start posting updates on the situation regarding the money transfer.
(I will leave below some pictures of the couple's home in the aftermath and the streets around their house. I will also link a couple of videos (that I have uploaded on my youtube channel for the purpose of this page) taken by Joelle herself in the aftermath around her workplace. And the last video linked is the recording of the security cameras inside Joelle's workplace DURING the explosion.)
Organiser
Cecile Badreddine
Organiser
Oegstgeest, NL
