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ATCIN
World News

Catholic charity sends aid to Syria

by Hannah Tooley

Aid to the Church in Need UK has said that it hopes to provide more than £900,000, with more than £30,000 going towards supporting pupils of a school in war-torn Damascus.

Fighting in the city made it too dangerous to remain in the area and the Sisters of Charity of St Jeanne Antide in Damascus have managed Al Riaya, the patriarchal Melkite Greek-Catholic school, for nearly 100 years.

After the outbreak of war, the Sisters had to leave the school and find a new building to teach the 950 students in.

Sister Fida Chaya teaches, she said: "The first urgency was to paint the 11 class rooms for the small pre-school children, which were completely humid.

"Expenses covered by the grant include teaching materials, other material for the school and school fees.

"The aid was received with great relief and in enormous gratitude by the families among whom many are without income and sometimes even without a house."

The money comes following discussions in London between NGO's and church leaders.

Leaders from 60 countries attended the international conference and made promises to help those internally displaced people as well as families seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.

Sister Fida Chaya also spoke about the trouble many Syrians are facing: "Life is becoming more and more difficult with the cold [which is] particularly strong this winter, the war without mercy and the prices of basic commodities do not stop form increasing.

"Nothing lets one hope that the conflict is soon over and with it the economic crisis, which has plunged millions of Syrians into the roads of exile and even the sea, where so many of them never reached the port."

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