Syria's Armenians risk a winter without food, shelter says aid officiali

02,Oct. 2013: Thousands of previously middle-class Syrians now stranded in Armenia are rapidly running out of resources and could soon have no shelter, food or medicine, said an international aid group official. "There is a big need of food, shelter and medical supplies," said Walter Hajek, head of international disaster management for Austria's Red Cross. "The highest influx of Syrian Armenians was last summer, and those were mostly of middle-class status, and they came here thinking it would be temporary," he said. Hajek said the Armenian government was helping Syrian Armenians with work permits and Armenian passports, free medical care at government hospitals and clinics, free schooling at government-run schools, and free space at several government shelters, but this aid was not enough. Hajek estimated that at least 40 percent of the Syrian Armenians now in Armenia were children, and many of them were in need of baby food and baby carriages, as well as pens, paper and other school supplies because their parents had run out of money.Hajek said his organization was already working with other international aid agencies, including the Catholic charity Caritas, to provide basic services to the Syrian Armenians. Armenia is currently sheltering 8,000-10,000 Armenian Syrians.
Source: CNS