Syria: "Many families cannot support themselves"

"Peace will be achieved when countries decide to work for the population, who are suffering, and not for their own interests", explains Pier Jabloyan, a Syrian Salesian missionary. Next Monday, 15 March, marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Syria. "Many Syrian children do not know what it means to live in peace and to have their needs covered", explains Eusebio Muñoz, director of Salesian Missions.

The figures for the last ten years are terrible: more than half a million dead, 200,000 people missing, 5.6 million refugees, 6.7 million internally displaced people, 13.4 million people who need humanitarian aid to live, more than 2.4 million children out of school, 60% of children suffering from hunger? "More than 80% of the population lives in poverty. Now we are no longer facing daily bombings. We are facing a different kind of war, an economic war," adds Jabloyan.

Since the beginning of the war, Salesian missionaries have decided to stay to accompany the population, especially children and young people. More than 2,200 children and young people attend the youth centres in Damascus and Aleppo, where they find an "oasis of peace". "Here they play and socialise with their friends, and forget about the suffering and consequences of the war", the Salesian missionaries explain. 

"Everyone in this country has someone to mourn. We lost an 8-year-old boy, Jack, killed by a mortar shell while waiting for the bus, and also Anwar and Michel, killed by a bomb that fell on their house", the missionary laments. "The end of 2016 was terrible when bombs kept falling day and night," says Jabloyan.

In addition to war and poverty, there are the consequences of the coronavirus. "In Syria, the number of cases of coronavirus are not like in Europe, but they are too many for a country where most of the hospitals and health centres are not functioning, they are destroyed... because of the war," says one of the young women who attends the Salesian centre in Damascus. Forty-two percent of the country's hospitals have been destroyed and 70% of the health personnel have fled.

Salesian Missions has continued to support the Syrian population and those who have had to flee to countries such as Turkey or Lebanon. On the tenth anniversary of the conflict, we also want to appeal to the entire international community to achieve lasting peace in Syria and to support a population living in poverty and scarcity.