Accompanying Fleeing Syrian Refugees

Accompanying Fleeing Syrian Refugees

by Week of Compassion

Your partnership and generous financial contributions are immediately being used to provide assistance to Syrians fleeing extreme violence.

Just in the past few months, Week of Compassion has continued our longstanding Syrian relief efforts with our partners at Church World Service and Global Ministries to provide emergency assistance to these individuals in Hungary, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, Serbia, and Syria.

One of the many refugees receiving our support is a two-month-old girl from Aleppo, Syria, named Kausar. Kausar and her family are Kurdish, a long oppressed ethnic minority. The family was living in this warzone until their house was leveled by errant artillery fire. Week of Compassion supported them with food, warmth, and sanitation as they fled through Hungary and stayed the night with many other refugees on the floor of Budapest’s Keleti Railway Station. Our partners provide mobile teams dispatched to refugee congregation points, which distribute blankets, hygiene kits, and food to thousands of vulnerable families. Kausar’s family had just spent three grueling days hiking through the Serbian woods on their way to join relatives in Germany. Through the support of Week of Compassion, our partners have made this dangerous journey much safer for two-month-old Kausar and so many other vulnerable refugees.

Another family Week of Compassion has been accompanying at the same railway station had come from the infamous Syrian city of Raqqah, the capital of ISIS. As a Kurdish militia threatened ISIS control of the city in June, ISIS gave the Kurds still present just three days to leave or die. Mohamed, his wife, and 2 young children aged 3 and 5 fled immediately, making their way all the way to Budapest with only $217 to try to start a new life. This family also received food, blankets, and hygiene kits from our partners.

In addition, Week of Compassion is working with Global Ministries to provide emergency food and winterization items to some of the most vulnerable Syrian families still living in the southwestern part of the country. Through our partners, we are delivering emergency supplies to Syrians in Lebanon and Syria with medication, rent, winterization items, and schooling for children. Thank you for your continued support to Week of Compassion–your partnership enables the church to accompany these refugees as they flee violence and not have to walk alone.

The United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) continue to offer support for the work of many partners in the region to provide humanitarian response to the needs of Syrian refugees.  Please consider supporting the work of Global Ministries’ partners’ relief efforts in and around Syria.  You can do that through One Great Hour of Sharing (UCC), the Week of Compassion (Disciples), or through Global Ministries directly.