Beirut explosion relief campaign raises £6m in three weeks

A London non-profit organisation has raised more than £6m in just three weeks to support emergency operations in explosion hit Beirut.

Impact Lebanon suspended its regular fundraising on 5 August, the day after an explosion caused catastrophic devastation in Beirut.

Instead it looked to focus all fundraising efforts on raising funds for disaster relief efforts to support those in the city.

According to the charity’s Just Giving page the tally raised stands at £6.2m in only three weeks. After previous targets were exceeded the current target has been set at £7.5m.

“On the fourth of August, a massive explosion hit Beirut,” said the charity on its Just Giving page.

“A large part of the city became rubble and many lives were lost. As our team at Impact Lebanon was trying to deal with the grief of watching our homeland crumble, we realized that we needed to act quick.

“We launched a fundraiser with the aim of providing some relief to those afflicted by the calamity. The size of the support that we received was higher than we expected. The Lebanese community reaching far and wide and the international community were ready to support so generously in any way possible. We met our first target within minutes and by midnight we had crossed the £1 million mark.

“From looking at the horrific videos of the blast, we knew that the destruction was massive and we needed to mobilise as many resources as possible to meet the growing needs on the ground as they became more evident.”

Transparency and accountability

The charity has offered assurances that money raised will be used to support those affected, stressing “our commitment to transparency and accountability is our core value”.

It has partnered with 3QA, a third-party quality assurance organisation in Beirut to help with the due diligence and monitoring involved in distributing funding to organisations involved in relief efforts.

Impact Lebanon added: “We have a team at Impact Lebanon dedicated to vetting other NGOs and leading careful examinations of their suitability to receive our funds.

"Our most important selection criteria for the NGO’s that will receive our funds are that they are apolitical and non-sectarian, that they are registered and recognised, that they have ongoing initiatives to address the crisis and that they’ve passed an audit test.”