Lebanese yoga teacher rebuilds Beirut studio thanks to kindness of strangers


  • English
  • Arabic

Hala Okeili was two minutes away from her house when the Beirut blast tore the city apart on August 4. The explosion site was a mere 500 metres away from where she lived, and her first thought was that her husband, house help and their cat had likely all perished.

Despite being so close to her destination, reaching home was a struggle, surrounded as she was by rubble and injured people. When she finally made it – by which time she had learnt that her husband was alive but severely wounded – Okeili found her home completely damaged.

“I could not comprehend what had happened to us. I knew my husband was hurt, but I could not get there to help him for the first few hours. I also did not expect that the house would be gone entirely – with no facade and lots of blood. Everything was destroyed. I did not even think of my yoga studio at that time,” says Okeili, a corporate lawyer and founder of Sarvam Yoga studio.

“I went into survival mode for three days and immersed myself in saving what I could. Simultaneously, I was trying to find an operating room for my husband.”

Okeili could not get to her injured husband for hours
Okeili could not get to her injured husband for hours

Hospitals in Beirut were overwhelmed with casualties, and Okeili’s house help and cat were not found for 48 hours. “Nothing can ever explain what we felt and lived through during those days.”

While Okeili was in hospital for her husband’s surgery, her friends spent the day cleaning and fixing her house. “If it were not for Lebanese solidarity, we would have lost all hope. Humanity is all we have left,” she says. "My mother, my best friend and four men I hired were working like machines, under pressure because there was a possibility that the building would collapse."

Towards the end of the day, an exhausted Okeili called for help from her balcony to a young man in the street.

"Suddenly, 15 young boys and girls lined up at my door. They assisted us and then went to support someone else.”

Such random acts of kindness turned out to be a guiding light for Okeili, with the solidarity she experienced first-hand giving her the strength to carry on.

She decided to rebuild her yoga studio, which was also destroyed in the blast. Her friends helped her set up a GoFundMe campaign, and donations started pouring in from around the world. “I cannot believe how generous people have been. Without their support, we would not reopen. We would not even find hope.”

In order to repay such kindness, Okeili began conducting free classes, both from a rooftop in Ras Beirut and via Zoom, to give thanks to the people who stood by her. “The free classes were just a small token of my appreciation. The community has been very generous to us, so I wanted to return the love.”

Okeili reopened her studio this month. “It took longer than expected because of the enormous amount of destruction, but we’ve freshened it up with lighter colours in the hope for new beginnings.

Okeili learnt the principles of yoga in India and returned to Beirut to open Sarvam Yoga studio
Okeili learnt the principles of yoga in India and returned to Beirut to open Sarvam Yoga studio

“If it were not for yoga, I would have lost my mind. To have your husband severely injured and lose your house, all your belongings, your business and your husband’s business in the blink of an eye could drive anyone mad,” says Okeili.

“The explosion left us with scars that will take a long time to heal. We lost trust in our country. We are left with fear and anxiety. Our city feels different, looks different.”

Having said that, Okeili is planning to stay in Beirut for the foreseeable future. “My life is here. Let us see what happens with Lebanon.”

One in nine do not have enough to eat

Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.

One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.

The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.

Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.

It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.

On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.

Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.

 

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Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US

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Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK

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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
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French Touch

Carla Bruni

(Verve)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Name: Peter Dicce

Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics

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Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates 

 

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Biography

Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day

Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour

Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour

Best vacation: Returning home to China

Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument

Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes

Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems

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  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
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