What if one family member or a neighbor is in dire need of medication which is out of stock amid a political crisis? Can an Instagram post save a person’s life? What if the crisis is prolonged? How can one create more sustainable on-ground actions? Marina El Khawand discusses founding Medonations, being the first healthcare provider of its kind in Lebanon, as well as the manifold challenges she encounters and how she manages them.
When a massive explosion tore through the Port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, it did not only destroy buildings. It shook the lives, dreams, and sense of security of an entire nation.More than 200 people lost their lives, thousands were injured, and large parts of my beloved city were devastated. I was only 18 years old at the time, a law student who dreamed of becoming a human rights defender. But that day forced me to ask myself a question that would change the direction of my life: What does it truly mean to defend human rights if I cannot stand with people when they need it most?
After the explosion, my family wanted me to leave Lebanon. They were afraid for me. The country was already facing overlapping crises: political instability, economic collapse, the aftermath of the 17 October Revolution, the COVID-19 pandemic, and now one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
I understood their fear. But deep inside, I knew I could not leave. I remember telling them: I have two choices: fight or flight. I chose to fight. It was not an easy decision. In fact, it continues to be difficult. But I believe that purpose is often born in the moments when everything seems impossible.
A changing landscape
Before the crisis, Lebanon was often called the “Switzerland of the Middle East.” It was known for its healthcare system, universities, and hospitals that attracted patients from across the region. But as the country continued to lose its stability, we started losing something much deeper: trust, opportunities, and people.Many Lebanese left the country searching for safety and a better future. We lost incredible minds, professionals, and young people who could have contributed to rebuilding our nation. It felt as though we were losing the heartbeat of Lebanon. But I also saw something else: a generation refusing to give up.
Growing up, I spent eight years in the Scouts Movement, eventually leading teams and serving as chief assistant. Scouts taught me that leadership is not about having all the answers; it is about taking responsibility, staying calm when others depend on you, and working as a team. I learned this through simple but formative experiences: organizing activities, guiding younger members, dividing responsibilities, and finding solutions when plans changed unexpectedly. After the explosion, those lessons became very real. I started volunteering to support affected families, carrying only a bottle of water and a backpack, and relying on the same instinct I had learned in Scouts: start with what you have, listen to what people need, and act.
One week after the blast, I decided to go deeper into the affected areas, even though many people advised me not to.
The aftermath of the Beirut blast
Streets I knew had changed within seconds: shattered glass covered the ground, familiar buildings had lost their facades, and homes that had once held ordinary family life were suddenly exposed to the street. The Beirut I knew before 4 August was still there in my memory, but the city in front of me looked like the images of war I had grown up hearing about.My family had always told me stories about the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990): about destroyed buildings, neighbors who were killed, and families who lost everything. But standing there, surrounded by destruction, it no longer felt like a story from the past. It felt like I was witnessing a war zone myself.
During that day, I reached a damaged building where three women were trying to protect what remained of their home. They told me they did not need help for themselves. Instead, they told me there was an elderly woman inside who needed assistance.
I entered the unstable building alone, wondering what I would find. Inside, I saw an elderly woman sitting on a chair. Her eyes were closed, her face was pale, and for a moment I was afraid of what I would discover. But then I saw her chest moving. She was alive. Then I noticed what she was holding in her hand: a purple inhaler box. It was the same medication my mother uses for her asthma.
That moment stayed with me. I immediately went to nearby pharmacies looking for the inhaler, but it was unavailable everywhere. I could not understand how I was living in a country where a person could need a basic medication to breathe, and we could not find it.
From an Instagram Post to a Global Movement
After hours of searching, I turned to Instagram. I posted a picture of the inhaler and asked for help. A Lebanese influencer shared my post, and within a few hours I received a call. Six boxes had been found locally, and another six were sourced through a Lebanese pharmacist abroad.I returned to the woman with the medication. The moment she saw the boxes in my hand, she started crying. Seeing an elderly woman, the same age as my grandmother, crying because she finally had access to her medication was both the happiest and saddest moment of my life. She whispered in my ear: “Thank you for saving my life.” Those words changed everything.
At that moment, I realized I wanted to dedicate my life to ensuring that people do not have to fight for something as basic as healthcare. That was the beginning of Medonations.
The creation of Medonations
What began as a single Instagram appeal quickly became a volunteer-led response. People started contacting me to donate medicines, ask for medicines, volunteer, or connect me with Lebanese communities abroad. At the beginning, there was no large institutional budget behind us. We relied on individual donations, volunteers, social media, and especially the solidarity of the Lebanese diaspora. As the initiative grew, we built relationships with donors, companies, healthcare professionals, and other supporters to help cover medicines, treatments, surgeries, and eventually the infrastructure needed for our Free HealthTech Clinic.Growth also brought challenges. We had to build trust around a new youth-led initiative, find sustainable donations while needs were increasing, coordinate medicines and medical requests responsibly, and manage the logistics of bringing support from abroad to Lebanon. Rather than waiting for perfect conditions, we built the structure step by step: documenting needs, working with healthcare professionals, expanding our volunteer network, creating collection points abroad, and developing partnerships that could make the work more sustainable.
Medonations was officially registered as a non-profit organization in Lebanon in 2021. In 2023, we registered Medonations France, establishing our first European headquarters and strengthening our ability to mobilize support for Lebanon.
Today, Medonations operates through a global network spanning more than 65 countries, connecting doctors, pharmacists, nurses, volunteers, donors, and supporters who believe in health equity. Together, we have reached more than 25,000 beneficiaries by providing essential medicines and healthcare support to people who need it most.
What makes Medonations special is not the numbers. It is the people behind them. Every patient, volunteer, donor, healthcare professional, and supporter shares the same belief: healthcare access should exist regardless of nationality, religion, race, gender, or social status. Everyone deserves the right to health.
From Emergency Response to Sustainable Change
While humanitarian work remains at the heart of Medonations, I have always believed that we cannot only treat the consequences of broken systems. We must also work toward creating better ones.My journey in healthcare has also shaped my personal path. I started as a law student because I wanted to defend people’s rights. Later, I pursued pharmacy studies because I wanted to better understand medicines, healthcare challenges, and the realities patients face. Today, I work at the intersection of healthcare, policy, technology, sustainability, and solidarity.
Through Medonations, I helped establish Lebanon’s first Free HealthTech Clinic, a space designed to make healthcare more accessible through digital tools and artificial intelligence. The clinic was developed in 2022 and officially launched in 2025 with AI integrations, demonstrating how innovation can become a practical tool for inclusion.
I also founded CuraLoop, a startup focused on addressing pharmaceutical waste and developing sustainable approaches to medicine disposal, because healthcare must also protect the planet that sustains us.
For me, healthcare is not only about treating illness. It is about building systems that allow people to live with dignity.
The Challenges Ahead
Working in healthcare in Lebanon is not easy. Every day, we face challenges related to funding, medicine availability, logistics, rising patient needs, and the difficulty of building sustainable solutions in a country repeatedly affected by crisis.Sometimes a patient urgently needs a medicine that is unavailable locally. In those cases, our work becomes a chain of coordination: verifying the request, reaching out to our network abroad, locating the medicine, and finding a safe way to bring it to Lebanon. At other times, the challenge is financial: a treatment or surgery is beyond a family’s means, so we approach donors and partners, mobilize our community, and try to bridge the gap. When one route is blocked, we look for another, another donor, another collection point, another partner, or a technology-based solution that can reduce the barrier to care.
These experiences have taught me that humanitarian work requires both urgency and structure.
Responding quickly matters, but so do verification, partnerships, accountability, and long-term planning. The needs continue to grow, and organizations like ours must constantly adapt while protecting the quality and fairness of the assistance we provide.
But the biggest challenge is making sure that healthcare is not seen only as temporary assistance.
Humanitarian organizations can support people during crises, but lasting change requires strong policies, responsible institutions, and investment in healthcare systems.
Lebanon does not lack talent. It does not lack passionate people. What we need is the commitment to transform ideas into action. I have learned that impact does not start with perfect circumstances. It starts when someone decides to act.
My journey started with one woman holding an inhaler in the ruins of Beirut. Today, it has become a movement of thousands of people who believe that healthcare should be accessible to everyone.
Because where you live should not determine whether you live. Health is not a privilege. Health is a right.
November 2026