Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, met Sunday at the Party’s general headquarters in Maarab, with a delegation from the Beirut Relief Committee, “Ground_0”, headed by former Minister May Chidiac, in the presence of “Strong Republic” bloc member, MP Imad Wakim, the Party’s Secretary General Ghassan Yared, Assistant Secretary-General Wissam Raji, Assistant Secretary for Administrative Affairs Walid Haidamous, Beirut District Coordinator in the Party Daniel Spiro, “RIC” President Maya Zaghrini, and members of the committee.

Geagea indicated that the meeting today comes at the outset of the second phase of restoration works that “Ground-0” is undertaking, after receiving a new donation that enables it to restore approximately 100 housing units in Beirut.

Commending the Committee’s efforts, Geagea considered it “a successful initiative that left a very good impression on everyone, as it dealt with a sensitive and complex issue in a transparent, professional, and hand-clean manner, despite the difficult conditions that prevailed in Beirut following the port blast.”

He added that the Relief Committee “was established spontaneously after the August 4 explosion to stand by the people of the affected areas and help them as much as possible,” revealing that “after its success in this mission, efforts are underway to transform it into an official association concerned with relief matters and natural disasters wherever they occur in Lebanon.”

Touching on the unfortunate high unemployment in the country in wake of the economic deterioration and the Corona pandemic, Geagea stressed “the need to focus on this problem and study the labor market and the jobs that can be occupied by Lebanese youth instead of foreign workers, and to create job opportunities for this youth group.”

In turn, former Minister Chidiac gave a briefing during the meeting on Ground-0’s activities and achievements during the past period, the most recent of which was the restoration of the building of the Lebanese University’s second branch in the area of Karmel Zeitoun, after the huge damages it suffered as a result of the blast and in light of the moral symbolism and educational value that this special building has in the minds of the people of Ashrafieh region.

Chidiac indicated that ‘Ground-0’ has been able to restore and reconstruct 510 housing units to-date and a number of small shops,” revealing the availability of “more funding for the restoration of 100 additional apartments.” She also announced “the starting soon to technically rehabilitate the facades of some buildings affected by the explosion in Gemmayze, to restore essence to streets that have lost their liveliness.”

Chidiac pointed as well to the Beirut Relief Committee’s success in securing food rations for more than 2000 families, which it is still providing to this day in cooperation with several associations and through donations from the Lebanese Diaspora.

She also referred to the petition by the Relief Committee in calling for an international investigation, under the supervision of the United Nations, into the Beirut Port explosion that it handed over to the UN Secretary-General through its representative in Lebanon, after Ground-0 volunteers collected more than 10 thousand signatures from families directly affected by the blast.