Fr. Antoine Tahhan (Armenian catholic parish of the Holy Cross church in Aleppo):
“the family to family program started with our church since September 2017, thanks to this program we were able to help the majority of our families, who were mostly from elderly people, widowed and the larger families in a different and effective way. By distributing the cash aids, we were supporting them in the daily living costs, the thing that makes us appreciate the donors’ efforts and express our sincere gratitude”. Fr. Antoine continues “with the relative calmness of Aleppo, in late 2016 people were hoping to be relieved from the war and its impacts over their life, but in reality the economic aspects of war are still suffocating people with the post-war financial crisis, hence from this point comes the importance of this program and its continuity, it is what helps people go on and survive”.
For more than eight years the Holy Cross church worked in the field of relief, with the help of various organizations. Food, stationery and sanitary baskets distributions were conducted to support the families in need. In addition, the Holy cross church, provided the houses with clean drinking water and water tanks for the families when people had hardships providing drinking water during water blockades in the city, reaching out to 450 family. However other issues surfaced due to the Syrian war other than the usual daily living hardships, like immigration for instance; 2500 families registered in Aleppo prior to war in the Armenian Catholic church, the number dropped to 1264 family according to a 2016 survey, the church is doing its best to be there for its remaining parish members.
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