Recognizing the hardships faced by the people of Beirut in the wake of the explosion that occurred in August, Hôpital de La Tour has donated medical supplies to a citizens’ group formed to assist with the city’s reconstruction. Our institution’s contribution will go to Saint-George Hospital, which was severely affected by the disaster.
After being approached in late August by Jade Heinicke, a medical student, Hôpital de La Tour did not hesitate to respond positively by providing two ECG machines, a pulse oximeter, and small medical supplies (thermometers, catheters, stethoscopes, gauze pads, urinary catheters, splints, etc.).
This equipment joins the many donations already received by the citizen-led initiative GVA-to-BEY, launched in mid-August to collect medical supplies. This initiative is part of a broader collective that also includes the Shipping Up To Beirut initiative, which focuses more on collecting reconstruction materials. Working closely with architects, doctors, and medical staff on the ground, the founders of these various projects—Paola Daher, Vanessa Zammar, and Karine Guignard—have succeeded over the past month in mobilizing significant aid.
In mid-September, Alexandre Le Goff, head of our purchasing department, and his deputy in charge of biomedical supplies, Philippe Visseyrias, delivered the supplies promised to Jade Heinicke to Hôpital de La Tour.
“Of course, I had seen the images like everyone else, and I was shocked to learn that 50% of Beirut’s hospitals had been destroyed,” she tells us. “As a medical student myself, I felt personally affected by this disaster, since healthcare and hospitals are, for me, one of the pillars of society. So I felt I had to take action. I’d like to thank Hôpital de La Tour for its generosity and for the aid it has provided to the Land of the Cedars!”
The donations collected through the various initiatives of this “Collective in Solidarity with Lebanon” will be distributed on the ground shortly with the help of a Lebanese NGO. If you’d like to support the GVA-to-BEY or Shipping Up To Beirut initiatives, you can find out what they need on their Facebook pages, here and here.