Thank You: Round 1

Before we set off to Beirut, I feel I have to write, on behalf of this project, a thank you note for all those who got us so far.

On the 17th of August, I woke up and wrote the invitation of going to Beirut, two days after the ceasefire, in an email that I sent to my classmates. To be honest, I had very little expectations in terms of who will want to go, it sounded like a bit of a crazy proposal at the moment, going to a war zone with a ceasefire that was so shaky. It was a very spontaneous email; I wanted to go to see what I can do, but did not want to go alone. To my surprise, Jeremy, Andrea, Douglas, Magan, Andy, Tiffany, Lorna, Emma, Frances, Hilary, Catherine and some people I never even met, replied positively saying that they are willing to go and do whatever they can.

To these people who had more faith in peace than me, I say thank you because you are what got this project so far.
I wrote a proposal then, and met with Chrissie, who offered all the help, she can, and encouraged me to go further. To Chrissie, I send the biggest thank you for this inspiring year and the endless support

Getting the funding was the biggest challenge, getting funded as an individual who has been in the UK for less than year, for a project that had to happen in less than a month was almost an impossible ambition. But I could have never done it without the support of Julian, Samia and Ita, who believed in me one year ago, and gave me a scholarship to come to this MA, and then believed in me again and allowed this project the financial means to go ahead. To all the people of the Karim Rida Said Foundation, an even bigger thank you

And then the preparations, the material, the planning and booking, and here comes the generous contribution of Tiffany and Photovoice, Andy and Hi8us, Samer Sawwas, MEA, and especially Nawal, Assabil and Sarah abou Ghazal who worked so hard to get things organized in Beirut in the midst of all this Chaos.

Finally thank you

Steve, for setting this blog, for agreeing to go at the last minute and being so open and generous with no conditions
Andrea, for wanting to go without even knowing me, without any guarantees or insurance, just for Lebanon
Frances, for being so selfless and generous despite the risk you are taking
Jeremy, for trusting this project from the very first start
And young Emma for wanting to go even if she had to pay her own ticket

We will be setting off from Heathrow on Sunday morning, wish us luck!

If I forgot someone, there's a round 2 next week, upon our safe return, Inchallah...

Maybe there is hope!