Who we are and what we do - Caritas Aleppo

Who we are and what we do - Caritas Aleppo

Greetings!

We had the pleasure to write to your website and share what we do, with the world. It is very
important for us to make the world see what the Syrian people are suffering every day from
poverty, sickness, homelessness as this brutal war destroyed half of the country and left its people

struggling to survive.
Caritas Syria

Caritas is a Latin word that means love, love that knows no boundaries, limits, race or religion: it’s
a transcendent love because it’s a free one and from the heart it seems to ease the suffering of

every poor and needy whatsoever.

Since March 2011 Syria has been beset by a brutal war, the greatest humanitarian crisis Caritas is

working on today.

Almost 7 million people in Syria need assistance and 4 million people fleeing the conflict have been
internally displaced. More than 1.7 million people are refugees in neighboring countries. The

number of victims of this fratricidal war is over 250,000, but the figures do not reflect the true cost

of the war.

The main aim of Caritas Syria mission is to offer food aid and rental assistance, as the war has
deprived most Syrians of all sources of income. Another vital aspect of the Caritas Syria mission is
provision of medical support and distribution of non-food aid, such as blankets, clothing and other

items as required.

We are dedicated and committed to reconstruction of community livelihoods through direct
contacts with the communities and positively contribute towards improving the living standards and
conditions of those adversely affected by the conflict in Syria. As a Church organization, Caritas
Syria is able to act inside Syria and to access vulnerable displaced population and host
communities, despite the challenging and volatile context, the impact of the conflict on its staff and

the possible shifts of power.
Caritas office in Aleppo

Caritas Aleppo's activities are being implemented in the entirety of Aleppo after the government
regained control on the east parts of Aleppo city in 22/12/2016, Caritas office in Aleppo
immediately opened an office for food and non-food assistance in the eastern part of the city in an

area called Jabal Badro.

Today Caritas Aleppo have 7 main ongoing projects which serve the most vulnerable people and

those projects are:
 Food project

 The project serves4156 families (16518 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project
distribute food and non-food baskets and coordinates with SARC (Syrian Arab Red Crescent) and

other organizations to prevent duplication in distribution.

 NFI project

 The project serves 1350 families (6297 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project
operates in the eastern parts of Aleppo and distribute food and non-food baskets to Jabal
Badro residents, the project also constructed water tanks in the area and made different
contributions in the same area, both the food project and NFI project occasionally distribute
vouchers to the beneficiaries to buy their different needed items from malls located in the eastern

parts of Aleppo.
 Rental and renovation project

 The project serves 468 families (2006 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project helps
the beneficiaries by paying rent allowance for 3 months, and makes visits to assess the damaged
houses affected by the war to help them reconstruct it, the assessment is done by experienced

engineers.
 Medical project

 The project serves 1026 families (1029 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project serves
patients with cold surgeries, regardless of its cost and the age of the patient. The Surgery is usually
followed by visits from the medical team to check on the patient's conditions. The project also

helps in cancer and hormonal drugs, and recently the cardiac emergency surgery department has

recently been established within the aid project.

 “Elderly people” project

 The project serves 972 families (1292 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project assists
the elderly people in securing their monthly medication by distributing it through local pharmacies,
it also offers non-food baskets to all elderly people to cover their different needs.
 The team makes monthly visits (medical and service visits) to more than 100 lonely elderlies and

serves them through the services team.
 Educational project

 The project serves 1004 families (1239 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project targets
the most needy students and helps them writing their homework and preparing them for exams,
the project also helps the university students in paying their fees, and recently a learning oasis has
been opened to help 100 of the poorest students to learn and provide a quiet atmosphere to write
their homework and retrieve important information that students have lost as a result of dropping

out of school during the conflict in Aleppo.
 Psycho-social support project

 The project serves 75 families (238 individuals) since the beginning of 2017, the project was
launched in Sheikh Abu Bakrarea in early July to provide targeted activities for children between 6-
12 years, the program is planned for five months, two sessions per week for two hours. The
program was built according to children survey to meet their different needs and makes them
active individuals and interacting them with the society that surrounds them and especially to relief

them from the suffering caused by the war.

All of these projects serve the most vulnerable people affected by the Syrian war.

Visit from Fr Przemyslaw Marek Szewczyk

We were honored to receive a visit from father Przemysław, the editor of "Dom Wschodni” website,
in Caritas’s office in Aleppo on 24/7/2017, where he roamed through the different projects that
Caritas operates in Aleppo and went to Jabal Badro area in eastern parts of Aleppo.
Because of this visit he asked us to write articles about Caritas work in Aleppo on this website

which we are very pleased to do so.

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