Caritas increases aid as refugees flood out of Syria

Caritas Internationalis is ramping up its efforts to help the growing number of Syrian families who have fled the conflict in their homeland.

“Within Syria, Caritas is distributing food,” said Laura Sheahan of Caritas told CNA. “It’s been a little hard in terms of cooked food because it’s difficult to even get fuel in Syria, but we’re providing things like sandwiches. Meanwhile, Boy Scouts are distributing some of the food in places like Aleppo and Homs.”

Caritas Internationalis is the Catholic Church’s confederation of charitable and development agencies. Overall, it is helping more than 13,000 Syrians affected by the present crisis.

The armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, which began in March 2011, shows no sign of abating.

“In Jordan, we are providing a number of services: food, medical care, things like diapers and blankets. So, Caritas Jordan is providing these emergency items to families who have just shown up in the country with nothing,” explained Sheahan.

“In Lebanon, we’re also providing things like food and blankets, but also we have a sort of roving medical van.  The doctor goes around in this big white van and takes care of Syrian refugee children.”

The United Nations refugee agency estimates that nearly 250,000 Syrians have now fled to the neighboring countries of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. Meanwhile it is thought there are more than 1.2 million internally displaced people in Syria, with 2.5million in need of humanitarian assistance. [More]

SOURCE

CNA/EWTN News