Self-empowering women affected by the Beirut Blast

"When I heard thunder, I would hide under the table in fear it was another explosion. Ever since I started the EMDR sessions with Intisar Foundation, I have felt safer, at ease, as if I had finally moved on from those 2 seconds at 6:09 PM on August 4th. Now my life has gone back to as normal as it can be under these circumstances. I got a new job, I went back to studying, I am managing so much better since starting the sessions. When I hear thunder now, my legs do not tremble, I do not search for a table to hide under." - Sara, one of our EMDR beneficiaries. 

Intisar Foundation started its free EMDR program on November 3rd, 2020 in large thanks to the generous donors who contributed through GlobalGiving. Although progress for this program has been held back by lockdown measures, we continue our efforts to expand our reach and be able to provide this incredible therapy to women affected by the Beirut Port explosion. The EMDR program acted as guide for the beneficiaries to let out trapped feelings and express themselves fully without holding back thoughts and ideas . During our sessions, the beneficiaries were very cooperative, they were always attentive and participated in the group discussion. In addition, they always showed excitement of wanting to come back and attend more sessions as they believed that they benefited from each session. This prompted them to understand their own thoughts, feelings and emotions, and initiated willingness to work on themselves to achieve a sense of normalcy again in their lives

For the groups we have worked with, we have conducted psychometric tests to study and document the effectiveness of our program. So far, we have seen a decrease of 25.51% in the average of PTSD symptoms reported, 31.39% decrease in average of depression symptoms being reported and 11.42% decrease in average of anxiety symptoms being reported among our beneficiaries prior to and after the program. This proves that this program is both effective and needed, as the reported levels of these three psychological issues was fairly high when measured. We thank our donors and GlobalGiving for giving these women hope in a better life.