Growing number of Poles helping Syrians as part of Christian charity

Some 9,000 people in Poland have pledged to provide long-term financial assistance to Syrian families under the programme, according to Poland’s public television broadcaster TVP.

According to some estimates, half the population in Syria has been forced to leave their homes as a result of the war.

Nearly five million people have fled the country and the number of internal refugees is estimated at around 6.5 million. About 80 percent of Syrians live in poverty, many do not have a roof over their heads, and one in three, including children, is suffering from hunger, the Nasz Dziennik daily newspaper has reported.

In the city of Aleppo there has been no electricity and running water for two years, and people suffer from a shortage of food and have no access to basic hygiene.

Under Caritas Polska’s Rodzina Rodzinie (Family to Family) programme, individuals and institutions can provide financial support to specific families in Aleppo as well as other locations in Syria and Lebanon.

The project was launched in October last year in partnership with Caritas divisions in Syria and Lebanon.

On Sunday, 23 April, a special collection of funds for people in Syria will be held in all Roman Catholic parishes in Poland, following a mid-March decision by the Polish Episcopal Conference, the central authority of the Catholic Church in Poland.

More than 2,000 families from Aleppo, in addition to families in Lebanon, have received long-term assistance from Polish benefactors under the Family to Family programme so far.

People can make their donations and find information on how to help victims of the Syrian war at www.rodzinarodzinie.caritas.pl.

“We help because we do not want to remain indifferent to what is happening to people in other countries," one Polish donor told a TVP news programme. (str/pk/rg)

Source: TVP, Nasz Dziennik, Gość Niedzielny