by Tom Gallagher
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a papal agency based in New York City, issued an update Tuesday in the form of a press release on its work to aid families in need in the Middle East.
According to the CNEWA press release:
Since May 2012, CNEWA has disbursed U.S. $1,799,767 for more than 24,069 needy displaced Syrian families and 24,234 children; the Christians of different denominations make up more than 80 percent of aid recipients.
In 2014, CNEWA has thus far disbursed U.S. $553,109 to assist around 6,324 Syrian displaced families in Syria and Lebanon.
"CNEWA's operational approach relies on partnering with church affiliated groups (parish priests, congregations, patriarchal representatives, bishops, lay societies and others) that are already active and efficient in collecting the necessary data," the statement says, and "can implement the program (purchasing, packaging, distribution, etc.), and have the capacity to report back in a timely manner."
Activities included:
- Providing milk and diapers for newborn infants and also for children under 14 years old;
- Providing daily breakfast and school kits for an estimated 5,000 displaced students in 11 educational centers in the district of Homs, the Valley of Christians and Aleppo;
- Distributing winter clothing and blankets to approximately 2,500 displaced families in the area of Damascus, Homs, Tartous and Latakia;
- Providing heating fuel for 400 families in Aleppo;
- Distributing food packages for around 1,740 Christian families recently displaced to downtown Aleppo;
- Offering trauma healing and catechetical activities to around 900 children in four parishes in Qalamoun, recently recuperated by the government;
- Repairing two Christian Armenian schools in the village of Kessab damaged by Islamic State fighters to allow 260 Armenian students to be re-enrolled in their schools after the liberation of Kessab; and
- Providing potable water tanks and food ratios to 514 Syrian families in Deir el Ahmar, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
