Transcripts For ALJAZ Inside Story 2020 Ep 222 20240712

Will the beirut explosions cause a humanitarian disaster the devastation leaves hundreds of thousands of lebanese homeless hungry and fending for themselves with no help from the government can aid organizations cope with the immense challenge this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. Levanon was in a dire state even before the enormous explosions which shattered beirut on tuesday many couldnt make ends meet as a 3rd of almost 7000000 lebanese dont have a job the government is bankrupt the currency almost worthless and lebanon is home to 1500000 Syrian Refugees the huge blast made things worse by destroying the main port for a nation heavily reliant on food imports lebanons only large grain silo is in ruins and the explosion destroyed hospitals and vital medical supplies needed to fight kovac 19 on top of all that there are complaints of no help from the government they now hold or reports. Volunteers in the streets of the lebanese capital providing much needed food and water to those in need and many are are desperate the blast. Really caused the humanitarian crisis 300000 people lost their homes theyre now displaced that many of them had shops cars that were really their livelihoods and the government this cash strapped they just dont have the money to be able to help even providing Emergency Assistance the government didnt even have the infrastructure needed for rescue teams to pull people from underneath the rubble there are reports that many could have survived if the rescue workers had the right equipment the government is in a very difficult situation when we say the government this is this is the ruling the governing alliance that is made up of Political Parties who who really control much of the state they know that they need the support of the International Community to be able to cope with this disaster but the International Community wants them to fight corruption in the state the International Community wants Economic Reforms and if they dont do that then theyre not going to get the billions of dollars needed to kickstart the economy of course the International Community is not attaching any conditions to aid the immediate aid for the lebanese people but they dont want to give the lebanese government a lifeline until it carries out the necessary reforms so the government of the Ruling Alliance coming under more and more pressure but as you can see the needs are great more than almost 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line 32 percent of the workforce unemployed and aid agencies say more than 500000 children in the beirut area alone are going to bed hungry senator for inside story. The government says the cleanup and. Reconstruction will cost up to 15000000000. 00 france and the u. N. Are holding a Virtual International donors conference the french president again urged the lebanese government to carry out political and Economic Reforms losing. Todays objective is to quickly and effectively coordinate all actions on the ground so that the aid can get to the lebanese people as efficiently as possible this offer of assistance includes support for an impartial credible and independent inquiry into the cause of the disaster on august 4th its a strong of the to meet the demand of the deputies people its a question of confidence. All right lets bring in our guests who are all in beirut violet speaks warner e. Is the deputy lebanon representative for the uns childrens organization unicef. Carlo gherardini is the lebanon director at the Norwegian Refugee Council and bus my publisher is the deputy head of delegation at the International Committee of the red cross lebannon welcome to you all bus but i want to start with you what are the immediate humanitarian efforts that you are focused on right now what are the areas that need the most urgent attention thank you and well as soon as the blast happened course Lebanese Red Cross medics our local partner the Lebanese Red Cross rushed to the scene and started evacuating the wound there does well of the bodies in the barracks hospital in the country at the same time the Educational Committee of the red cross we mobilized our medical teams and overnight distributed much needed medical drugs supplies and consumables to over 12 hospitals that were receiving a large part of that when the baby needs are enormous i mean bins are the ones of medical of course it was so many hospitals were going but as well we need to remember they were coping with the covered 9000 crisis on top of the crippling economic crisis as well or at least 3 hospitals also sustained significant damage just with their infrastructures and have to read direct some of their patients to other hospitals a large part of the needs its Health Related and we are trying to address all of the needs but other other needs are we need to be thousands of displaced people that lost their home but were saying that shelters who are trying to rebuild their lives of course there and the structural needs are water teams together with beneath that also assess the site with the way beirut or tourists published many of the remaining pumping stations that were affected by the explosions and are looking for ways not to rehabilitate the water not where and of course ongoing distribution yesterday and today to over 200 families with ready to eat food and these are families that reads the. By the blast of our normal. Carlow a bus and brought up some of the issues i actually wanted to follow up with you about which is that even before this lebanon was dealing with an economic crisis a Health Care Crisis rampant unemployment the spread of covert 19 how will the country deal with this just how dire is the situation now the situation is extremely serious i mean you mentioned some of the needs i think lebanon was on its knees before shes days explosion and this is obviously compounding the situation we have 300000 estimated people without her. And i see has been since birth they working with thousands and thousands of locally organized 1st responders to try and support people in terms of housing and shelter and people want to stay close to their destroyed properties some people cannot were trying to help them in the response the situation is it is terrible and all of the all of the previous crises that lebanon was facing that you mentioned are now exacerbated by an absolutely horrific situation on the ground violet i want to ask you specifically about the trauma thats been visited upon children in beirut right now just how traumatized are they and how is this affecting them. Yeah its definitely affecting and indeed i think just to say that its adding on to already what what theyve experienced and of course we had protests in the beginning of the year which is which left them out of school for about 4 to 5 weeks and then the economic crisis meaning that they could see their parents losing jobs and maybe seeing less food on the table then they saw before and were doing the same things as before and then the code which also again lot them down into into their homes and not going to school so this constant top of that and indeed during this during the blast just after the blast as was said people were rushed to hospitals and this was not done in a an organized way it was very chaotic so with children worse they were swept off by themselves or parents by themselves living children behind and so that has been very traumatic and now one of our major response was actually tracing families back to each other to make sure that children knew where their parents were the parents knew where their children were. So that its highly traumatic. Just that everything thats happens and now many knots or we are it were estimating about 100000. 00 children displaced and damaged homes and traumatized so its a significant amount of children and you know how how will their what the what will the future look like of course the question when all this is already happened to them so its a very traumatic experience Psychosocial Support and the trauma support is very very relevant and very very important bus my women french president emanuel mccrone visited beirut a few days ago he said that no blank check would be written to the lebanese government without reforms he also said that financial help for beirut should go directly to aid groups and to n. G. O. S into those who need it the most so my question is will the aid that is now be pledged actually be able to get directly into the hands of aid groups of n. G. O. S of the victims those who need it most. We certainly hope so i mean over the last 4 days airports as were seeing plane after playing of this distance and we are very thankful to all the nations who have been sending us in crime in the suspense i mean were talking about medical supplies that are arriving talking about and were talking about human search and rescue teams and settled and names that horizon are going on to help with certain acts your efforts however any kind of the sense as we all know is not always or not a Financial Assistance is needed this well to reconstruction and reconstruction to hospitals because struction of harms way for structural a bible especially services such as water not spread that this International Organizations know exactly but i think there is the Financial Support and to make sure that transparent and much needed aid isnt there will go to the people who need its a must and to the violence or structure that needs to be with the violin i saw you nodding to some of what bus mail was saying did you want to add to that. No i think. What was happening is very much a focus on on these families and for us a specifically in children so our response is very much to working with the young people we were just talking about the trauma and one of those things is that we have a vast network of young people that weve been working with and they really want to to to engage and participate which is also part of that engagement of bringing back but you know for us very much its working directly with the young people and the partners that we have on the ground to make sure that the support actually gets to them who need it so much and so for a sick as for example were also beefing up a cash program specifically in the sense that goes directly to to the households to indeed be able to build back to to be able to provide the food that they need to be able to provide for their families thats just an example carlow 300000 people have been displaced i mean that is an astounding thats a horrific number how are they going to be able to get adequate shelter now. Its extremely complicated most people are being harvested by friends relatives wherever they can many people are still living very close to. Destroy property what were doing at the moment is trying to provide Emergency Support to those to those shells of the being lets say damaged in a limited way where moderate adjustments can be made so that at least theyre safe and people can get back home and then trying to support those people who who can do that with cash support but just to just say i mean the International Pledging Conference Today is very welcome and its absolutely critical that any assistance reaches the ground as quickly as it can but its a short response and i think in the longer term. Lebannon can only respond if the economic factors you mentioned earlier if livelihoods if jobs are available to people to be able to rebuild their lives we have received curation today where there are people who have their houses that have been destroyed they have money in their own bank account and theyre not able to take that money out to help themselves rebuild because of the capital controls so are looking forwards in the longer that there are Structural Reforms that are needed to allow the lebanese people to help themselves rebuild and id also like to say that the vulnerability that we have now what from the explosion is is massive but of course lebannon was hosting very generously more than a 1000000 Syrian Refugees and Palestinian Refugees and still does and vulnerability is increasing because of whats happened as well and so any assistance the comes in for the explosion is absolutely welcome but its important to remember that we need to continue our operations that were running until today and which are now back up and run. And the needs of those people is increasing as well because of whats happened and needs to continue to be supported bus mother red cross has been working extremely hard to locate the missing could you give our viewers an update on that front how was that going into certain or spare parts are underway the Lebanese Red Cross is there to support them but we have civil to you know the army and general Security Forces there as well and quite a nation where its also some Civil Defense teams that have arrived from across the country is our priority now is the i. C. C. And make sure that the families of the missing are company and that any human remains are dealt with in a dignified and human manner so we are supporting the authorities in close coordination with the nice with the army and as well with the Lebanese Red Cross to ensure that proper morgues ive set up so over the last weve been setting up temporary refrigerated trucks and other reflection. Containers a group of water and shorted out all human remains and body parts are stored safely and in a dignified manner according to International Standards and in a way that will allow proper identification of human remains and inspection of the end its a complicated process its been very complex as well in terms of chords in addition because of the multiplicity of actors on the field because on site abbi explosion. Bodies were taken from hospitals and warrants and now efforts are underway to consolidate over where that was done and ensure proper identification of all the about missing persons and to be able to relieve the families of the missing that are the exactly the explosion some are still waiting for news about their. Violet there are Many Health Care facilities maternal a Newborn Centers that have been severely damaged i want to ask you. Specifically about how children how newborns how mothers are going to get the care that they need this is a very important question because of course we need to continue of course the help the hospital says number one that the hospitals can still function but indeed that to get the routine Health Services that those mothers and children need is a is essential and so indeed we have understood that and were assessing that about 16 Public Health centers have been damaged one significant lead is actually completely down and the new governor a specialized unit that was it was directed at the port has been the demolished as well luckily it is 18 newborns that were at that center they were actually evacuated by the army a very rapidly so we didnt lose any babies there but all this has to be rebuilt together with the schools weve. Understood and were also helping the ministry of them doing assessment that are at least 120 schools have been damaged from small minor i you know from the windows to actually as Severe Damage as they were trying to go back to school come back to school. But really if the. Story of a dog barking thats so its you know the old infrastructure for children and need to be rebuilt schools of Public Health Centers Hospitals Early Childhood Development Centers Community Centers all this is rebuilding so indeed its a longer term its a its a humanitarian need right now but its about recovery Building Back and Building Back hopefully Something Better carlow can we talk also specifically about the looming threat of Food Insecurity because you know beiruts port that was the main entry point for food imports on which the country is is so heavily reliant the grain silo was also destroyed the government holds no strategic stockpile of grains how big a threat is Food Insecurity right now. Well i mean through insecurity for families in lebanon it was already a problem before tuesday because many people just didnt have the money to be able to afford any food and inflation has been very high over the last month so many people have been struggling to access the food that was in lebanon as it was of course with the with the explosion and 85 percent of the grain reserves of the country being taken out it poses a significant questions the port of tripoli is being really purposed to accept. Cargo flights have been coming in in the past few days its too early at the moment to understand exactly what the consequences are on the market but its safe to say that we expect to see very significant potential impacts on peoples ability to access today in the coming months violet you heard carlos speaker earlier about how vulnerable the refugee populations are in lebanon you have 1500000 Syrian Refugees you have hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Refugees i want to ask you specifically about child refugees in lebanon how vulnerable are they right now well they have been to a very very vulnerable already thats a large segment of the pashtun population that weve been dealing with and supporting for many many years now and already maybe year and a half ago their livelihood opportunities were really already taken away because the economic crisis and the lebanese were prioritise meaning that the small jobs that they might have had his parents completely diminished so theyre completely dependent on outside support and meaning also for children so actually unfortunately we seen we had a you know we have a program also where we support children to go to school but weve seen since last year a dropping off of chilled going to school because at the end of the day they need to help their families pay bills and be able to survive so you know children have been very. Much engaged in child labor the issues of nutrition has been ready been already highlighted for of these refugee children so you know its an answer only getting worse and for us you know the popular secular segment of the population is a priority but now that weve got a huge lebanese population that also needs a significant help so its a whole lebanon a scenario at the moment that needs humanitarian help. Bussmann i lived and worked in beirut for 3 years so when i see the response to this when i look at these videos of these volunteers that are coming out into the streets that are stepping in the people that say the government is not doing anything so were going to come in and were going to help the aid effort were going to clean up the streets were going to help people rebuild their houses when i see that im certainly not surprised being as familiar with lebanon as i am but i want to ask you how instrumental has it been for groups like the red cross for other n. G. O. S to get the aid of these volunteers who are coming out into the streets if that area very instrumental i mean just clearly as you mentioned mean the level of solidarity a roster of just hoops emerging has been really really heartwarming i mean its almost unbelievable how overnight it will just rush to help each other clean up their apartments clean up the last clean up that really we need an average day just walk around the streets there where the neighborhoods that were destroyed and we see you with volunteers from all countries the people who can from to connect to people who can provide about look after the stuff all the better with the brooms so how clean up blast to help with i just saw images of a woman cooking in their kitchens at oxygen but it was just such a volatile as thats the sense of the displaced people its very heartwarming and it allows our going to officials such as the Lebanese Red Cross to be able to focus on her main prayer and continuing to help in the search and never rescue efforts of the one dead as well as the worst of the cop left yesterday because while the country is really name from. Those even more than 280 wounded yesterday across the 78 who required hospitalization and so you know just imagine a glimpse of the lebanese but process having to work around the park on creed and continued public spaces that are. We think everything being exposed a lot to not as relevant we are going on the want the result of that so how the local volunteers having been said prosperous really. Be absent to help people get back on their. Bikes to me how i was very very encouraging and. Carla we only have a couple of minutes left let me ask you how much is all this complicating and going to complicate the response to cover 1000 in lebanon. About ms and i mean the Health System was already at full stretch before tuesdays explosion is now completely overwhelmed and what were trying to do in the response you know thousands and thousands of people together now in in the devastated areas helping each other is to try and support in terms of Good Practice in terms of making sure that people are wearing be there is the possibility of further spread with such close gatherings of people so it could lead to an increase of cases in an already overstretched system and if i have i can just go back one second is that a programmer on the the amazing outpouring of solidarity and warmth d of the lebanese people in responding to this explosions into tuesday night on wednesday morning i went down to to the site and it was it was absolutely amazing to see how many people were already there with with brooms brushes dustpans and rushed doing whatever they could to help our response instead as they has been absolutely to work alongside and through these local organizations trying to support them with extra safety material trying to provide our Technical Expertise and shelter to help them assess properties to try and allow referrals to happen effectively to try and help coordinate the response because it is chaotic at the moment and now we need. If you go into a mall or a naked assessment phase one understand what the overall needs are would its its a very very difficult situation are we run out of time so were going to have to leave it there thanks so much to all our guests violet speak warner e. Carlo karate and bus ma the basha and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter were at at a. J. Inside story for me mama june and the whole team here bye for now. 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