Father Fadi Azar, of the Custody of the Holy Land, distributes blankets and potatoes to families who have lost everything.
ACN – Voices continue to call for greater international aid for Syria, blocked by economic sanctions and where aid is arriving in dribs and drabs to alleviate the catastrophe of the earthquake. This is the case of Father Fadi Azar, a Franciscan priest of the Custody of the Holy Land, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Lattakia, a large Syrian coastal city and one of the places most affected by the earthquake.
His parish and monastery hosts dozens of families who have been left homeless, are afraid to return, or have been evacuated by the authorities because of the risk of collapse of their homes. «As you can see, there are a lot of families in this place who have lost their homes and use this space and others in our monastery to sleep. The parish has also been affected. Many families had to evacuate their apartments, their houses, because they are not suitable for living. So that’s why they have to stay here, although they are eager to return,» says the priest in a video recorded during the visit of a team from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which has come to Lattakia to deliver emergency aid and coordinate new collaboration projects with the local Church.
Here too they have just received Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, who accompanied Father Azar to listen to the testimony of several affected families, to receive a small aid truck with blankets, mattresses and food that has just arrived, and to pray in front of the ruins of a building that collapsed in the earthquake. The Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land in Lattakia have become one of the main aid coordinators in this city. Alongside them, among other institutions, is ACN. At the moment, in addition to sheltering the families in any available and safe place of the Church, they are distributing blankets and a simple food to which they have had access: potatoes.
«God bless you. Sadly after 12 years of war in Syria, we are experiencing another catastrophe: the earthquake. We ask the international community to help us in these difficult times, especially in this winter. It is very cold, there is lack of electricity, lack of heating…», cries the Franciscan priest. His voice joins that of the entire Church in Syria, as well as other organizations, calling for an end to the economic sanctions and the opening of the borders so that much more aid can arrive.
According to the United Nations, there are already more than 10 million people affected by the catastrophe in Syria alone, half of whom may have been left homeless. Before the earthquake, Syria was the country with the largest number of displaced people, with 6.7 million souls living outside their homes but within its borders.