Caritas Lebanon Director speaks on Syrian refugees
(Vatican Radio) Lebanon is appealing to the international community for aid as the
country works to provide humanitarian care for displaced persons fleeing the violence
in Syria. A recent report from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says there are some 139,000
registered refugees from Syria, with more than 55,000 awaiting registration in Lebanon.
Syria’s two-year civil war is responsible for the deaths of at least 60,000 people,
according to a UN estimate released earlier this month. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands
have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the conflict.
President of Caritas
Internationalis Lebanon Fr Simon Faddoul spoke with Ann Schneible about the humanitarian
situation on the ground for refugees, and for Christians in the region.
“The
current situation in Lebanon,” Fr Faddoul said, “is an unstable situation, at all
levels: Security wise, and economically and politically, and socially.”
“Most
of the refugees have come to areas that are already poor… which makes things much
harder. You cannot just think of the refugee, but you think of the host family. It
has become very hard,” he said.
Fr Faddoul spoke also about providing pastoral
care to those refugees coming to Lebanon, taking into account that the vast majority
are Muslim, with Christians comprising a small minority.
“There is, first,
a common approach to all,” he explained, “that the human touch is more important than
the materialistic needs. It’s not important what you give; it’s important how you
give it.”
Listen to Ann Schneible’s full interview with Fr Simon Faddoul,
president of Caritas Internationalis Lebanon: