The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Director-General Audrey Azoulay, said on Thursday that 159 private and public schools as well as 85,000 students were affected by Beirut’s explosions.
Azoulay disclosed this during her tour at the Port of Beirut after her visit to schools in Achrafieh, an area heavily affected by the explosions.
“We need approximately 22 million dollars to rehabilitate destroyed walls in these schools,” Azoulay said.
UNESCO is keen to support Lebanon’s education and culture sector since “a future of a nation can only be built through schools,” she noted.
Azoulay also emphasised the need to support Lebanon in the field of online education given the outbreak of COVID-19.
“We have coordinated efforts to identify needs and mobilize funds to start rehabilitation work when sanitary circumstances permit it,” she said.
Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1510 GMT) on Aug. 4, shaking buildings all over the Lebanese capital, while killing at least 183 people and wounding around 6,000 others.
