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Elena Bowes

New York-London design & culture writer of a certain vintage looking for meaning and wholeness in life

A City to be Saved – One Brick at a Time

August 14th, 2020
Beirut
Personal

As I sit at my kitchen table sipping coffee, reading about the world’s woes, I think about those people in Beirut who don’t have a kitchen table to sit at.  I don’t know about you, but for me, my home is my refuge, my safe place where I can try and forget about what’s going on outside the front door. I have my books, my pictures, my bed, my things. I can’t imagine how I would cope without them. I think that is what has struck me the most about the explosion in Beirut- these people have no where to escape from their personal hell. No place to refuel, gather strength, feel safe.

That is why I think my dear friend Lara Fares and her family’s efforts

to help those rendered homeless build new homes, new places to shelter from the devastating storm they’re in,  is a cause I want to be a part of. I hope you’ll join me. Here’s the link to donate – any amount – no matter how small-  is helpful.

Lara and her husband Michael took me and a small group of friends to Lebanon a year ago May, to show us the country they loved. We all wanted to be honorary Lebanese by the time we left.

They are such a warm, generous and cultured people. It was so easy to see how Beirut was once the Paris of the Middle East, and how, given time with the Lebanese peoples’ innate creativity and drive, Beirut could be again. Now that dream is gone. At least for a very long time. Please help these people have homes again so they can dream like the rest of us. Thank you

August, 2020