Welcome to Syria, where your support is giving practical help and lasting hope to families hit by the 2023 earthquakes.
Conflict broke out in Syria in 2011. Thirteen years on, this has turned into one of the world’s most complex and tragic humanitarian situations. For a country already facing such significant needs, the terrible earthquakes in February last year left even more people without access to safe water, education and medical care. But faithful regular givers like you are making a World of Difference to families across the country, including in Aleppo…
Watch this short video where Diana Yazji, Syria Programme Manager, welcomes you to her country and tells you about the work your support is enabling.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Gdr6BbDygno
Your regular gifts help to provide psychological support, to encourage people recovering from emotional trauma to express their anxieties and find solutions to their suffering.
Faithful support from regular givers like you helps to provide clean water and hygiene supplies to many families displaced from their homes by conflict.
Your gifts help provide vocational training and support to young people, and trauma counselling, education, food, and clothing to children in juvenile detention centres.
Syria is located on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Asia.
Slide 1 of 3: 37,335 earthquake-affected people were supported through Tearfund’s emergency response
Slide 2 of 3: 10,880 people affected by the earthquakes were given emergency cash
Slide 3 of 3: 715 people whose businesses were damaged by the earthquakes were helped to restart trading
37,335 earthquake-affected people were supported through Tearfund’s emergency response
10,880 people affected by the earthquakes were given emergency cash
715 people whose businesses were damaged by the earthquakes were helped to restart trading
Your support means so much to families hit by the earthquake in Syria...
Photo of Aseel (left) and her sister (right).
When conflict broke out in 2011, Aseel, her younger sister and 70-year-old mother fled the country. They returned four years later and began to pick up the pieces. With the help of their Tearfund-supported local church, the family opened a clothes shop to provide for their daily needs. Life wasn’t back to normal, but it was bearable. Then two earthquakes struck.
When the first earthquake hit in the early hours, the family stayed out in the pouring rain. ‘People told us the buildings might fall so we must stay away,’ says Aseel. ‘It was so cold.’ With aftershocks striking, the family sheltered in a school bus.
They feared that no help was coming. But they were wrong. Their local church, Saint Ephrem, opened its doors to welcome people. ‘As soon as we heard that the church was open, we went there immediately and stayed for a month,’ she says. ‘The church helped a lot. Thanks to a leader of the clergy, we stayed warm and well fed. They even brought us medicine.’
Although safe, they needed to start rebuilding their lives again. And faithful regular givers like you have helped to make that happen.
Aseel (left) and her sister (right) meeting with a member of their local church, Saint Ephrem.
During that terrifying time sheltering in the bus, rocked by aftershocks and storms, Aseel – despite being frightened herself – reassured her sister, saying, ‘Don’t be scared, Jesus is with us.’ That was shown through the actions of their local church.
Thanks to regular support from people like you, Saint Ephrem was able to help the family. ‘We got monthly financial support and food rations,’ says Aseel. ‘They did everything perfectly, gave us medical support and food nonstop. Our church helped like no other – everybody was talking about it after the earthquake.’
After a month, this church support had given them the strength to return home. ‘Life must go on. We were safe and well fed in the church, but we had to move on.’
High inflation, international sanctions and families with very little income mean that building a successful business was a struggle even before the earthquakes. ‘It is really hard. The sanctions caused a high cost of living. Everything is so expensive, even basic essentials.’
Your support is helping families to overcome these huge challenges. Tearfund is providing business training and grants through local churches including Saint Ephrem in Aleppo.
Photo of Aseel
‘Tearfund was amazing. They financially supported our small business,’ says Aseel. ‘Now I can buy more items for the store. This will increase the number of customers, because there’s more variety.
‘The business course covered everything from the first step till the last one. They introduced us to business management, taught us how to run small businesses. And about time management, marketing, how to buy merchandise and how to price.’
The training and financial support has given Aseel back her confidence and hope for the future.
‘‘Our church helped like no other – everybody was talking about it after the earthquake’’
‘I know life is not easy, but we need to have patience,’ says Aseel. ‘With a little patience we can do it. Have patience and always be hopeful.’
This is just one example of how faithful givers like you, and donations to our Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal, supported families following the earthquakes. It also helped us to provide temporary shelter to 650 people inside church buildings, along with food and basic needs, distribute 1,227 hygiene kits to keep people safe and 987 food parcels to families in greatest need. Thank you.
‘Aleppo, Syria's second city, is a bustling, cosmopolitan centre which offers visitors an intoxicating blend of neon-lit modernity, vibrant souks and ancient, often spectacular architecture.’ That’s how the 2001 edition of The Rough Guide to Syria introduced Aleppo. Much of the city still survives, but visitors are rare.
These photos will give you a flavour of what it's like, including the Aleppo souq.
Citadel at the dusk, Aleppo, Syria
Cityscape from Historic Aleppo Citadel, Syria
Al Madina Souq, Aleppo, Syria
Al-Rais Mosque in Aleppo, Syria
Finding school work difficult, Renad, who is autistic, found a welcome home at a Tearfund partner in Syria. The supportive teachers, especially her patient guitar instructor, helped her to blossom. Renad began to thrive, learning music and later crochet, filling the void left by school and enriching her life. Your faithful support is helping people like Renad to flourish all around the world. Listen to a recording of Renad playing the guitar.
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Photo of Qays
‘Being the head of the family, I felt like I should be stronger,’ says Qays about the day the first Syrian earthquake struck. ‘Because, if I was weak, everyone would be devastated. I asked the Lord to make me stronger and help me keep my family safe.’
In the aftermath, the family were given shelter and food provided by Tearfund through his local church. ‘The church is like a mother’s heart, it never says no to anyone,’ he says.
But when Qays, his wife Fatin and their two children, Christin and Michael, returned home, they found their house badly damaged. And they couldn’t afford to repair it.
Qays stayed strong thanks to a Tearfund grant to buy ‘...thread, needles, sewing machines accessories – all the supplies needed to make clothes.’ With his tailoring business able to continue, Qays could once again support his family. The financial help has renewed Qays’ determination to have faith that one day things will be different.
‘Tearfund’s support increased my income, which helped my family a lot. I am able to afford all our basic needs and get my children what they need.
Top: Qays working at his sewing machine. Bottom: Tailoring a set of trousers.
‘As long as Tearfund is supporting us, we are able to be successful and achieve our goals. I have high hopes for my business. I want to get to the point where I don’t need financial aid and support my family by myself.
‘I will never give up, we all know that the difficulties are great, but a good Christian stands on his feet again every time he falls. Success should be a goal, and we should always work to achieve this despite the struggles, because God is with us.
‘I hope we have safety and stability in this dear country. We all love Syria. We all feel sad when someone leaves. I hope that Syria goes back to what it was before 2011. Syria is for everyone, a flourishing country, a giving country, a country that loves its citizens. It’s a country that is able to hold all its citizens, despite the religious diversity, with love. Syria doesn’t deserve what happened to it. Tearfund brought the joy back to our lives.’
Through your prayers and your giving, you are empowering our local church partners in communities like these in Syria and across the world to help families recover and thrive. Poverty is not God’s plan. You are. Thank you.
We're excited to share that Tearfund will be hosting an event on International Womens Day 2024, in partnership with award winning artist, Hannah Rose Thomas.
Hannah is holding an exhibition of her collection, Tears of Gold on the 8th of March in London (details below). We are inviting supporters to join us for the daytime exhibition and seminar and/or the evening wine reception with keynote speaker, Tamsin Grieg.
When: 8 March 2024
Where: St Mary’s, Wyndham Place, London W1H 1PQ
Art display open: 11:00–16:30
Daytime seminar: 13:10–14:10
Evening Reception: 17:30
The evening reception is free for Tearfund supporters by entering the code "Tearfund" in the promo box at checkout.
Website: www.tearsofgold.co.uk
*Names have been changed throughout to protect identities
Missed a stop? Explore past updates and see how your kind gifts are making a world of difference.
See destinationsWe hope you enjoyed your time in Syria. Where will you be visiting next? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see…
©2024 All Rights Reserved. Registered Charity No.265464 (England and Wales) No.SC037624 (Scotland). Tearfund, 100 Church Road, Teddington, TW11 8QE 020 3906 3906 [email protected] Images and copyright: Raymond Salloum, Tom Price/Tearfund. Angiolo Laviziano/Adobe Stock.
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