A street in Aleppo after the earthquake. (ACN)
6.7 million people live displaced outside their homes and 6.6 million have fled the country.
ACN – This Wednesday, March 15, marks 12 years since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, a conflict that is still latent today, although it has decreased in intensity. The country is divided between the large areas controlled by the government of Bashar Al Asad, the northwestern region of Idlib, in the hands of rebel groups; and the northeast of Syria, where Kurds, rebels supported by Turkey and government troops share strategic positions.
«Since 2011 we went through economic and social devastation. The earthquake has now caused more poverty, more devastation and people cannot return to their homes. There are many who are hungry and very cold because the temperatures are very low here,» Samuel Esak, a young Christian from the local HOPE organization, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) from Aleppo. The earthquake of February 6 and its aftershocks have caused a new humanitarian catastrophe with thousands of dead and wounded, in addition to the more than 500,000 deaths caused by the war. In addition, there are thousands of people who have once again been left homeless, in a country that already had 6.6 million refugees outside its borders and 6.7 internally displaced persons who had fled their homes to other areas of Syria.
ACN highlights the urgency of support for Syria: «90% of the people live below the poverty line, and now the earthquake has resulted in more need and uncertainty. There is hardly any work and the average salary is only 30 euros. There is no water or electricity, gasoline is very expensive and scarce, so the local Church keeps asking us for help for basic necessities».
New ACN aid to rebuild houses
The Churches in Syria continue to tenaciously promote social and pastoral aid projects to support the most affected families. It now wants to support the repair of houses affected by last month’s devastating earthquakes. To this end, it is counting on new aid from Aid to the Church in Need, which has pledged more than 500,000 euros to enable Christians to return to their homes, as well as to pay rent for temporary accommodation.
«The Church is often the only source of aid for Christians, who claim they are not receiving help from the UN or other international NGOs,» acknowledges Xavier Bisits, ACN’s Syria project manager, stressing that this aid is absolutely vital given the harsh economic conditions imposed by the international embargo, «Hence the Churches are coming to the aid of those who have nowhere else to go.»
According to Bisits, «there are still at least a thousand people in Church-run shelters and parish halls, but that number is decreasing, as they are either moving to relatives’ homes or engineers have visited their homes and declared them safe.»
Christian unity in charity
The Ecumenical Joint Commission of Christian Churches in Latakia – made up of Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Presbyterian and the Catholic Churches – will receive $250,000 from ACN to restore more than 250 homes damaged by the natural disaster. In Latakia province, more than 100 buildings collapsed as a result of the February 6 earthquake, and the number of buildings estimated to have suffered damage of some kind exceeds 17,500.
In Aleppo, where churches have also opened their doors to those left homeless, a similar plan is in place. Thus, under the leadership of the Episcopal Council of Aleppo, a commission of specialized engineers has been set up to assess the damage to homes in order to help the survivors return to them. Bisits confesses to being «impressed by the way the Churches are collaborating with each other to manage the funds well,» adding that housing repair is an unusual project for ACN, but that the needs of the local community make it a pressing necessity.