Maltese Charity Doing Everything It Can To Help Orphans In Syria
As the civil war in Syria approaches its seventh ongoing year, the world is still shocked by images coming from the war-torn country. Around 465,000 Syrians have been killed since the beginning of the war, alongside over one million wounded and over 12 million Syrians who were forced from their homes and turned into refugees.
However, there are efforts to send aid, even from Malta, as Stephen Axisa, director of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN Malta), explains.
“We are operating in 140 countries at the moment, and Syria is one of them,” he said. “Parts of Syria have been under siege for the last couple of months, many innocent people have been killed and many children are homeless, and we are trying to help in anyway we can.”
And with recent pushes by the Bashar al-Assad government into rebel-held strongholds as well as the rebuilding of major cities like Aleppo, a lot of help is needed.
“The needs we are finding are diverse,” Stephen told Lovin Malta. “We have a kitchen in Aleppo where we are serving 10,000 meals a day, at 2pm daily. We also provide medicinals as well as food baskets for families in need.”
ACN, with support from the Pope, distributes about 2,400 food baskets every month in the Aleppo region, mainly to families living in the surrounding areas and not inside the city.
The food baskets include things that cover the basic necessities for a family for about three to four weeks. It includes cooking oil, rice, tomato paste, two chickens, pasta, and similar items,” said Stephen. “We are also providing powdered milk for the children in Aleppo from birth to about 10-years-old to sustain their growth.”
The ACN has even met up with the UN to ensure that the funding they receive goes to the right places.
“Last week we met with the UN development program to see the way forward to ensure the funds that the UN get are used as they are supposed to be used – and this is also connected to our work in Iraq,” Stephen told Lovin Malta.
ACN Malta are about to start a new project specifically aimed at supporting the education of orphans of the Syrian war.
“We’re about to start a new project for the 4,000 children who have become orphans due to the war, whose parents have been killed, and we are trying to get them together with the Islamic Mufti in the city there to give them shelter and education,” he said.
“If we do not do this now and look out for the orphans, the situation we are seeing today will be nothing compared to what they will go through in the future.”
If you would like to donate to ACN Malta please follow this link or send an sms to the numbers listed below:
€2.33 (50617391) – Feed a child for 3 days
€6.99 (50618949) – Feed a child for 1 week
€25.00 (51802081) – Feed a family for 1 month
Image: AlJazeera
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