Syrian Bishop appeals for help to meet growing Caritas needs

The head of Caritas Syria is appealing for help to meet the growing needs of Syrians in the face of ongoing violence there. Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo says some of the greatest needs are in the area of health care “because it is getting very difficult to have medicine, to have possibility to go to the hospital for operations and so on….”

Where education is concerned, the Caritas Syria President laments “it is becoming more and more difficult to pay scolarities (tuitions) in the schools, even in the Christian schools because of the devaluation of the Syrian money.”

Bishop Audo explains that Caritas Syria is trying to offer assistance to displaced families who have left the battered city of Homs, helping them rent apartments elsewhere. Caritas is collecting money, he says, “so they can pay every month the rent of an apartment, especially in the region of the ‘Valley of the Christians’ (Wadi al Nasara), or in Damascus or in Aleppo – it’s very important to support those families so that they will be able one day to return to Homs.”

Speaking to Vatican Radio’s Tracey McClure, Bishop Audo says Caritas Syria is present in Homs and the surrounding area, providing food, medicine and tuition for some 700 families. The Catholic aid agency also assists hundreds of families in Damascus and Aleppo and the countryside.

Last year, he explains, Caritas managed to provide assistance to all these people on a budget of one million U.S. dollars. “But I think for the future,” he says, “we need more organization, more help to support all these families.”

Listen to Tracey McClure’s full interview with Bishop Audo: