Do you feel helpless and overwhelmed with all the challenges we are facing these days? Do you feel like landing a hand?
Good news: you don’t have to be a health professional to make a difference. There are a lot of small and big actions you can do to help others. And bonus, helping others will make YOU feel good, and that is priceless! 

We’ve listed 14 things you can do to help, based on our own experiences and on our friends suggestions.
Here they are : 

1- Buy groceries and household items for vulnerable people (such as your parents/ grandparents/ great aunt/ old neighbor) 

2-Call someone who lives alone and chat with them, they’ll be happy to be in contact with another human being!

3- Take care of yourself, stay at home, wear a mask and wash your hands when you go out, and be careful, we don’t want to overwhelm the health system too fast. And yes, even if we started de-confining, wave 2 is coming, so stay careful.

4- If you live in France, you can volunteer with one of the programs of Makesense  organisation: they help social enterprises and NGO grow and develop. Check their platform in Lebanon too, their super dynamic team organizes webinars every week, and they are always on the lookout for volunteers to give webinars on topics related to social and/or environmental impact.

6- Donate money to NGOs who distribute food and vital items, such as the Lebanese Food Bank, Beit el Baraka, Foodblessed, Bassma. Or to the Lebanese Red Cross who saves lives on a daily basis. 

7- Check the Volunteer circle : they match you with an NGO or social enterprise to volunteer with them, based on your skills. 

8- Don’t share the information you receive on whatsapp (or FB, Insta etc.) without having checked the sources first! There are a lot of fake news and misinformation spreading these days on social networks, and they induce a lot of anxiety. No need to spread this anxiety further if you can avoid it! 

9- Display Abaad’s number : 81 78 81 78 on your balcony to incite women who are victims of gender-based violence to ask for help.  

10- Buy local if you can, there are a lot of Lebanese startups who do great stuff and deliver, and they need your help to survive and grow! These are some that we know: : taqasnacks, thegoodthymes, buylebanese.com, biopret, mintbasil, caeser cider, Elmir Beer , Vagabond beer 

11- Donate your old clothes to social enterprise Fabricaid! They have bins at BDD and Spinneys. They redistribute your old clothes to people in need. We are huge fans of the project, if you want to know more about it, check the portrait of the founder that we did some time ago!

12- Give blood! Hospitals are in dire need of blood and struggle to find some. You can give your blood at the Lebanese Red Cross , or you can call Donner Sang Compter.

13- Help 20,000 children, orphans, women, widows, unemployed youth and refugees to stand on their feet and survive the crisis by donating to this campaign organized by Al Fanar.

14-Organise some online gaming time with the children of your aunt/uncle/parent’s friend. You can sing with them, dance, play pictionnary,  read stories if they are young enough.. You will most probably have fun, and you will allow some precious “me time” to their desperate parents, who will be forever indebted to you! 

What about you? What do you do to help? Please share your ideas with us, it will benefit the whole community of Labneh&Facts. 🙂

#becausewealllovelabneh