30/07/2021
Knock Beirut's Doors being part of L'Orient Today ’s article about civil’s interaction post the port’s blast; an interview done with the co-manager Nada Jouni
' After initially rushing to clear rubble and direct traffic during the chaos of the explosion’s immediate aftermath, Nada Jouni and Hassan Nasereldine set up Knock Beirut’s Doors to help people whose homes had been destroyed, using their passion for carpentry to repair broken doors and windows.
“At the beginning, we literally just used the materials we had at home and used our own budget,” she said. “Then, over time, we got donations — from friends, from acquaintances and family members.”
A year later, while the immediate need for repairs has largely been fulfilled, Knock Beirut’s Doors is still going.
“We didn’t completely stop, and I’d like to never say we did,” Jouni says. “Even now, we are still receiving cases where people have still not had their windows and doors fixed.”
The team is now looking toward adopting a more sustainable approach to their work, raising funds to run carpentry workshops to help people gain new skills and recycle and upcycle old metal and wood to build furniture.
“This is part of the future,” Jouni says. “We believe that NGOs and citizen initiatives are indispensable.
“Somehow, people trust the NGOs and initiatives more than the state — especially after we saw what happened in the explosion,” she adds. '
Port blast anniversary Civil society stepped in to fill the void left by the state in the port blast recovery efforts — and never left L'Orient Today / By Emily Lewis, 30 July 2021 13:50 Volunteers from the civil society group Klna, which was active in the response to the Beirut port explosion, di...