Lebanon Strong: how two Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneurs supported a home country in crisis
by Maria Sarrouh
Dina Bakhit remembers exactly where she was when tragedy struck. She was sitting behind her desk in Mississauga on August 4, 2020, when her coworker flew into her office to deliver the news.
Over 9,000 kilometres away, a red mushroom cloud erupted over Beirut. Around 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely for years had exploded in the heart of the capital. Over 200 people died, more than 6,500 were injured, and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes.
Amidst the confusion, fear and concern, Bakhit sprung to action.
With 25 years of experience in the shipping world, Bakhit knew what it would take to send containers of relief aid to Lebanon. But she needed a “voice”, someone with strong ties to Arab communities in the province.
Hamsa Diab Farhat was at a candlelight vigil paying tribute to the victims when she got the call to help launch Lebanon Strong. The founder and festival director of Taste of the Middle East and Blog Middle East TO said yes without hesitation.
“There was no time to wait,” said Bakhit, president and CEO of Global Logistics Management.
The Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneurs “clicked” immediately, completing each other’s sentences, meeting half-way between their perspectives, like a partnership straight out of a movie, Bakhit said. Within 24 hours, the pair had a volunteer team lined up and the province divided into eight pockets, with groups collecting aid donations in drop-off zones in Pickering, Woodbridge, London, Windsor and other cities.
In just 11 weeks after the Beirut blast took place, Lebanon Strong had already shipped 11 containers to the country.
“To anyone who’s in logistics, that’s crazy,” Bakhit said.
The relief campaigns, totaling $6.5 million in donations over the past year, have matched the evolving needs of communities across Lebanon. With the help of donors, the team filled 14 40-foot high cubes -- the largest size available -- and are now working on their 15th and 16th containers.
The first three containers were a “mish-mash” of emergency aid, food, blankets, bedding and personal protective equipment. Lebanon was facing a shortage of Band-Aids at the time, Bakhit said. There was a need to focus on medical products for hospitals and clinics. Orthopedic surgeons in Lebanon received units needed for surgeries to treat damaged knees, elbows, fingers, wrists and other deformities.
Last fall, Lebanon Strong shipped winter jackets, lunch boxes, water bottles, notebooks, stationary and art supplies among other back-to-school necessities. And when the holidays rolled around, the team prepared gift donations for children, who faced tremendous difficulty amidst school closures, economic collapse and the pandemic. The container filled with toys sat at the port until mid-January due to pandemic-related delays, missing Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, but the gifts were distributed during Easter and Ramadan festivities.
In between donations of other products, containers filled with firefighters’ jackets, helmets, hoses and other supplies were collected and distributed.
Bakhit and Farhat expressed deep gratitude to the donors who have supported the relief campaigns. Last week, they received a large donation from Firefighters Without Borders Canada (FFWB). Carl Eggimen, a representative of FFWB drove two hours to Lebanon Strong’s warehouse and filled half a container with wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds, surgical aid, gloves, gauze and wound care products.
“Without him, we wouldn’t have sent $2 million worth of firefighter gear to Lebanon,” Farhat said.
Even after one year of conscientious and transparent work, a persistent distrust in Lebanese operations and leadership clouds Bakhit and Farhat’s work. Some Ontarians continue to voice concerns about theft at the Lebanese port. As well, deep-rooted sectarian and religious ties have led some individuals to question whether the campaign’s donations are distributed to Christians or Muslims, or why Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps benefit from the aid.
“One person called me and asked, ‘we want to know, what kind of people are you helping?’ I said ‘human beings’ and hung up,” Bakhit said.
When containers are filled with one commodity -- like the 15th will be -- they’re at a higher risk of theft, Bakhit explained. Mixed consoles are less risky. Although the team trusts the Lebanese NGOs and grassroots organizations they work with, they’re careful to avoid “even one per cent” chance of the products being stolen. Farhat and Bakhit have gone as far as cutting ties with NGOs that are not transparent enough in their operations.
The team ensures donations reach smaller villages across Lebanon, including Chouf, Jnoub, Zahle, Kfar Shouba, Tripoli, and other districts and villages to “cover all sects”.
“Those comments, they really anger me now,” Farhat said. “The people that look into our work, that research, that are donors, are not bringing that up. We’re doing our due diligence.”
Farhat and Bakhit “go the extra mile”, even planning to travel to Lebanon to see the container of baby formula arrive.
“I told Dina I’m going to sleep in the port beside it,” Farhat said, laughing. “It’s $88,000. It has to be delivered to people that need it.”
Bakhit and Farhat were on the verge of retiring before spearheading Lebanon Strong, but now their plans have changed. In May, they launched Palestine Strong and have goals to develop relief campaigns for other Arab countries.
“It’s an obligation,” Farhat said. “If Dina and I can raise this much money to send to Lebanon, how can we stop?”
“We’re both mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. We’re business women, we have full-time jobs,” Bakhit added. “But we will continue to stand next to Lebanon, no matter what.”
Lebanon’s prolonged financial and economic collapse is possibly one of the top three most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century, according to World Bank Lebanon’s Economic Monitor published June 1. The local currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value on the black market. And after former prime minister-designate Saad Hariri’s resignation on July 15, the free-falling Lebanese pound was trading at 23,250 to the U.S. dollar, reaching a record low.
An assessment conducted by UNICEF surveying 1,244 households in April found 77 per cent of households did not have enough food, or enough money to purchase food. Around 76 per cent reported being affected by the massive increase in medication prices.
On July 30, the European Union adopted a framework for imposing targeted sanctions “against persons and entities who are responsible for undermining democracy or the rule of law” in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Lebanon Strong team is forging forward and continuing their work to support countries across the Middle East. Lebanon Strong is one of several initiatives led by Arab-Canadians in this past year. Initiatives such as Humanitarian Coalition initiative, which was led by Rola Dagher, Jad Shimaly, Joe Hamadeh, Dany Assaf and others, as well as the private fund matching initiative led by Dr. Joe Dubleh, have helped send millions of dollars to Lebanon in the last year.
“We’re blessed that we’re able to do this,” Bakhit said. “We are here to help. But we need communities to keep donating and sending aid.”
The Canadian Arab Institute has released a policy brief titled Envisioning an Alternative Approach to Lebanon: the Arab Canadian Response to the Lebanon Crisis written by Jad El Tal, CAI’s Director of Policy & Research, and Arab-Canadian Advisory Board Members of CAI, Dr. Bessma Momani, and Dany Assaf.