Social activist and RHU part-time instructor of communication and mass media in the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Sally Hammoud, launched a relief initiative “First Aid Renovation” following the Beirut explosion on August 4. Alongside her students, colleagues and friends, a group of volunteers and handy men convened to provide first aid fixings for the affected families.

RHU engineering students were a main pillar in the Initiative. The expertise of RHU graduates and senior students, Mohamad Mashmoushi, Marwa Ismail, Ahmad Kreidieh, and Mira Al-Kamand, helped lead construction teams on the ground. Moreover, RHU students volunteered in the field scouting for damaged properties, visiting affected families, and assessing needs of the beneficiaries.

The Initiative included other groups of students who were able; from the comfort of their homes during COVID-19 self-quarantine, to help fellow volunteers in the field. They managed the Initiative’s database system, communicated with beneficiaries, and followed up with the people in the field by contacting handy men and scouting for suppliers and partner organizations.

First Aid Renovation Initiative aims to help the Lebanese community relief response in different areas:

• Helping affected families regain the safety of their houses through rebuilding, fixing, and providing nutrition and wash needs 
• Supporting the NGOs that are working on the relief operations through providing instant assistance to beneficiaries.
• Providing Lebanese youth with opportunities to engage their social responsibility efficiently in community projects
• Utilizing youth’s expertise and knowledge effectively and expose them to future work opportunities.

In a quick response to this humanitarian crisis, the Initiative provided minor fixings to houses including all types of minor woodwork. However, with the growing needs of the affected families and the deterioration of food safety, in addition to the financial crisis, and absence of required medical treatment, reaching out to more families and catering to their increased needs was highly essential. In this regard, First Aid Renovation extended its scope to keep pace with the growing needs of beneficiaries.

First Aid Renovation has so far renovated more than 140 houses targeting more than 160 families. It provided not only woodwork maintenance, but also hygiene kits, food parcels, and minor medications through partner organizations, in addition to furniture, mattresses, washing machines and other home appliances to some families.

Furthermore, with the help of volunteers, from different backgrounds, including musicians from all over the world, First Aid Renovation managed to gather around 13000 USD to sustain its operations. In addition to this, artist friends supported the Initiative. Ingrid Naccour through her work brand Captured by Her donated from the revenue of her Beirut blast post cards that were sold in different sizes in Lebanon and all over the world in support of the Initiative and the affected families.

Dr. Sally Hammoud holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Media Studies from the Lebanese University (December 2020). Her dissertation presents a new concept in public relations, Intelligent Public Relations, where she researches the role of language and artificial intelligence in building a digital reputation in modern public relations.

Dr. Hammoud has been lecturing on diverse communication topics, communication, media, public relations, ethics, persuasion, and marketing, at multiple universities, including the Lebanese American University (since 2012) and Rafik Hariri University (since 2016). She is a member of the "Arab Association for Communication and Media Studies Research."

Along with her academic credentials, Dr. Hammoud has several professional diplomas as a certified practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), business trainer, and international leadership trainer. She is a strategic communication consultant and trainer for local and international organizations in the profit and nonprofit sectors. She delivers international training in diverse topics such as strategic planning, mind mapping, change management, design thinking, community development, conflict transformation, and other uprising areas of communication in business and civil society.

Dr. Hammoud is a TedX Dornbirn Austria Speaker, Change Maker at the MEM summit in Lugano Switzerland, and a guest keynote at several international and local platforms.