Madrid, 11 Feb. Salesian missionaries in the city of Aleppo, Syria, are asking for help to help the thousands of people affected by the earthquake, to whom international aid is arriving in drops due to war and international sanctions.
“After twelve years of war, the explosion in the port of Beirut, the coronavirus… Syria is tired and weak and this coup has left many people in a very critical situation”, explains the superior of the Salesians from Aleppo. , the Venezuelan priest Alejandro León, in a video published by the organization.
León directs until now the Don Bosco center, managed by the Salesian missionaries of Aleppo, which was a reception center for children and young people of school age, and overnight it became a center of reception and assistance for hundreds of victims of the earthquake.
According to León, since Monday morning when the earthquakes started, hundreds of people came to the center asking for shelter and help, and Don Bosco’s five missionaries and their volunteers were ready to welcome them and shelter them.
More than 500 people whose homes had been destroyed or seriously damaged are settling as best they can in the missionary center which welcomes them despite the lack of means.
“It breaks my heart to see how people lay down on a chair or on a table to sleep, everything we had at our disposal, blankets, mats, chairs, we already gave it away, that’s why any help is important,” he said.
“Amidst the cold, rain, power cuts and lack of fuel, thousands of people have been left homeless and hundreds are still under the rubble. Our obligation is to be with them and to bring them the help that is in our hands, which is not much at the moment,” says León.
For this reason, she appeals to the generosity of the rest of the world to donate “small or large; any help is important”.
“We have suffered from the war for many years and from the explosion two and a half years ago in the port of Beirut. Everything affects the economy and the population. And now the earthquakes are coming. Everything is very complicated, but we are not giving up and the Syrian people will continue to be united and move forward,” he added.
A first Salesian emergency project aims to help 1,200 people over the next month with accommodation, meals, warm clothing, meals three times a day, first aid, medical examinations, psychosocial assistance and repair of minor damage caused by the earthquake.
From Madrid, the Salesians explain that the most “safe, transparent and direct” way is to donate through their bank accounts and that the missionaries will be responsible for buying what is needed in Aleppo itself or in Damascus.
It is, they comment, “to treat as many people as possible, in order to guarantee humanitarian aid to families, children and the elderly who no longer have a home and do not know where to go”.
“This coup has thrown many people into a very critical situation. We will continue with our doors and our hearts open as much as possible, but we need help,” says León. ECE
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