In response to the August 4 explosion in Beirut, Alfanar has launched an Emergency Lebanon Appeal to provide emergency relief for thousands of people who have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

The scale of the crisis Lebanon now faces is daunting, with 300,000 people made homeless, 50% of the population living below the poverty line, and an estimated 75% of the population reliant on food handouts by the end of the year. Property destruction is estimated at $3 billion.

The impact of this disaster will be felt far beyond the initial explosion. Impacted communities need our support.

Our support will focus on the following three critical areas of support:

Hunger Relief

Working with our social enterprises on the ground - Lebanese Food Bank, Soufra, ShareQ and Tawlet Souk el Tayeb - we will deliver a mixture of hot meals and dry food boxes to affected families, ensuring that they are able to meet basic food needs in the coming months.

Debris Clean Up and Reconstruction

We will work with social enterprise BEDCO by March NGO to support debris clean up and reconstruction efforts. This will not only allow affected people to return home and businesses to reopen but will also provide much needed construction work and income to at least 80 disadvantaged youth over 40 days.

Direct Support to Social Enterprises

We will provide additional support to our portfolio of scoial enterprises in Lebanon, helping them to rebuild and repair damaged work spaces, providing counselling to help them and their teams remain strong and resilient, and offering technical support to help them adjust impact models and operations in light of the crisis.

The social enterprises Alfanar invests in include: Ana Aqra, B.O.T., FabricAID, Inaash, MMKN, NaTakallam, SE Factory, ShareQ, Shatila Studio, Tabshoura, The Lebanese Food Bank, The Little Engineer, WPA/Soufra.