Report on the situation in the Archdiocese of Lattakieh

Greek Catholic Archbishopric                                                                                          P.O.B. 151

Of Lattakieh and Christian Valley                                                                               Fax: +963 41 476002

LATTAKIEH-SYRIA                                                                                                             Tel: +963 41 460777

 

Report on the Archbishopric and the Syrian Crisis

        I. Material damage

1. Al Hosn parish
a. Church and presbytery broken into and damaged
b. Waqf Rest Home and shops dependent on the church completely looted and wrecked. Estimated cost of repair $40,000
c. 73 families made homeless and jobless, their homes devastated and demolished
d. Two priests and their families made homeless

2. Damage to other churches hit by shells. Estimated cost of repair $10,000

3. Assistance by the Eparchy’s Welfare Committee to displaced and arrested persons as of 15 June 2013:
Number of displaced families

Christian Valley
900 families

Safita
120 families

Lattakieh
75 families

Tartus
120 families

Total
1215 families


      II. Areas of urgent need

a. Rent
b. Food, baby milk
c. Clothing
d. Furniture, beds, blankets, sheets
e. Refrigerators, kitchen utensils
f. General medicines, surgery, drugs
g. Detergents
h. Heating, fuel, stoves, gas
i. Bursaries

General relief to displaced persons, reckoned at $100 per month: $120,000
Help with cost of monthly rent for 700 families at $100: $70,000
Monthly total: $190,000


    III. Demographic situation

Displaced persons come from:
Homs
Qusayr
Damascus
Hama and district
Idlib
Deir-al-Zor
Tabka (various regions)
Lattakieh’s suburbs
Ghassanieh
Hassakeh
Kaussabba

    IV. Economic situation

1. All the displaced families are living below the poverty threshold and have resorted to the help provided in order to survive
2. Most displaced persons are unemployed because their shops have been looted and destroyed and they cannot return home
3. Many civil servants are no longer in receipt of their salaries
4. There is inflation as things become more expensive due to scarcity.

(Signed)
+Mgr. Nicholas Sawaf

Archbishop of Lattakieh and Christian Valley