By Albert Geokgeuzian, Staff Writer

July 3rd, 2021

Even though public attention has shifted elsewhere in the ten months since the August 4th explosion, there are still organizations working tirelessly to help the Lebanese people. Today, we'd like to highlight one such organization that has been exemplary in its approach and transparency over the course of its existence. That organization is Nation Station, which is situated in an abandoned gas station they now call home and which is run by a group of neighbors who accidentally created one of the most wholesome and helpful organizations I have ever seen.

They started out small, handing out farming produce to now running a full-blown kitchen in what used to be the car wash section of the gas station.

So how did Nation Station get here? We have to go back all the way to August 4th, the day of the explosion. 

THE START

Immediately after the explosion, a group of neighbors came down to the streets of their neighborhood to offer help. They had a few things to donate, so they placed their donations in an abandoned gas station in Geitawi for people to take.

They had placed their items in an orderly fashion which, amidst the chaos of everyone trying to help everyone, made it seem like they were an organization distributing aid. As such, volunteers passing by the streets of Geitawi placed their donations at the gas station, probably thinking it was a donation center, and all of a sudden, the gas station was where you wanted to be if you wanted to be organized.

After 3 days 

Three days after the explosion, the six Co-Founders of Nation Station - who came from different sects and backgrounds, two Shiaa founders, one Maronite founder, one Orthodox founder, and two nonaffiliated founders - decided to meet up and try to figure out what they were going to do; the only thing left to do was to organize the chaos and they got to work.

They quickly realized that in order for this to work they needed to be organized, and that starts with keeping track of whoever was involved with Nation Station, volunteers, and beneficiaries. At the very start, Nation Station home visits were based around removing debris and sealing broken windows with nylon sheets. They also got into distributing food to beneficiaries, so to make that easier they needed a geographical map of the city.

Now, whenever you need a map of a city you go to the mayor, and so they did. However, the mayor’s office responded by indeed giving them a map of the city that turned out to be from 1976, epitomizing the incompetence of the Lebanese government at all levels. Faced with their first major problem, Nation Station responded by creating their own map, utilizing publicly available tools to create a map that includes the exact locations of all their beneficiaries, as well as a picture of the house door. This was so valuable that when iNGOs came to Lebanon to help, they asked Nation Station for their map so they could better navigate the city.

After 1 Month

After 1 month had passed, they decided to sit down and reflect on what they had accomplished up to that point, as well as discuss what they planned to do moving forward. At this point, the media attention was quieting down, and volunteers were becoming scarce, so they needed to figure out how they could make everything more sustainable. They realized that they needed to empower the people instead of just helping, Empowerment Over Charity, this became their slogan.

A few weeks later, one of the co-founders was walking around the neighborhood when an elderly man approached him, asking for gravel and sand because he was a builder and needed those supplies to rebuild his and his neighbor’s houses. After that fateful meeting, they came to the realization that empowerment ensures sustainability. They not only ask beneficiaries how Nation Station can help them but also what abilities they have and how they could help their own community. Local carpenters and electricians were brought in to help with rebuilding projects that Nation Station had taken on. They also brought on the “tetas” of the neighborhood to help in the kitchen with food preparation.

Present

A few months ago, they considered what they wanted to be. Throughout it all, they realized that the most impactful thing they did was empower people. Nation Station has so far helped reconstruct 145 homes, have assisted over 450 people medically while helping 300 patients continuously and cooking for more than 200 of the most vulnerable beneficiaries. As such, empowering people became extremely critical, not only for their beneficiaries but also for their volunteers. 

Nation Station is now a part of the community in Geitawi; at the first, they didn’t have any doors to safeguard their kitchen, so anyone could’ve entered at any time and yet no one did. Even if someone did enter and did take something, they probably needed it, and Nation Station’s goal is to help people but almost everyone recognized their value to the neighborhood.

In fact, they came in one morning and realized that someone had indeed gone in and left them something. This person placed a rose on their whiteboard and wrote “because in your food there’s a taste of love and a smell of giving, we’re giving you this rose.” This act of gratitude wasn’t a one-off either. At one point, a blockade of municipal police tried to shut Nation Station down which caused the neighborhood to come down and demand Nation Station be left alone, which proved to be successful.

I visited Nation Station and I realized something when I was there. Nation Station was doing the things that a government should be doing: they were helping create jobs, feeding the people, assisting with medical expenses, and educating the community.

Nation Station has come a long way since their humble beginnings, but they still want to do more. With the decline in media attention, their supplies are dwindling. So, if you can help in any way, please contact Nation Station. In the next article, I'll go over what Nation Station has done so far and what they plan to do in the future.