On Aug. 4, the third-largest non-nuclear blast the world has ever seen shook the city of Beirut, Lebanon. The city’s core was wiped out. Beirut was in shambles, leaving 300,000 people homeless in a city that was already struggling economically, politically, and socially — all during a global pandemic. Thousands of injured people flooded Beirut’s hospitals. Adil, a Lebanese student who was in Boston during the blast, recalled his initial response to the news, “calling my parents to check up on them was my first instinct and every ring waiting…
