Twenty tonnes of dry food have been collected so far in Cyprus and is set to be shipped to Lebanon on Tuesday, CyprusMail reported.
The fatal blast in Beirut on the 4th August left at least 150 people dead, 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless.
Commissioner for Volunteerism Yiannis Yiannaki expressed his satisfaction with the response in Cyprus, which included a call by President Nicos Anastasiades to help.
“At the moment,” he added, “we can only ship these basic products, which will help the people in Beirut survive until plans to rebuild their houses are set in motion.”
Yiannaki said canned food is probably the most suitable donation for the time being. “We are talking about a large volume of items collected from citizens and companies, more than twenty tons of food items, like cereals, nuts, crackers, general purpose flour and milk powder for children...People have nowhere to cook in Beirut. They need food that can resist to the hot weather and that can be consumed immediately. Once infrastructures are rebuilt, even partially, we can start sending other items," he added.
The first batch will be loaded together with other items on the ship of the Greek Military Navy "IKARIA", which will depart for Lebanon on Tuesday.
The dry food items were packed by volunteers over the weekend at the five collection points. They will remain open for collections until Friday.
Cyprus collection points:
Aid from the Republic of Cyprus also included €5 million while the government will also stand ready to place the international airports of Larnaca and Paphos and the “Andreas Papandreou” military airbase, as well as the ports of Limassol and Larnaca, at the disposal of the UN and the international community involved in any humanitarian and other assistance deemed necessary.