ACN UK – Coronavirus is causing the West to forget the people of Syria who are still in desperate need of healing after almost a decade of conflict – according to a nun who has risked her life to provide urgent aid.
Sister Annie Demerjian told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that COVID-19 had brought the country’s recovery to a halt.
She said: “Syria is like someone who has had a serious operation and he needs to heal, he needs to recover and he suddenly doesn’t have time to recover.
“The world has begun to forget about Syria and that’s painful.”
Sister Annie, a leading project partner for ACN, explained that the pandemic came just as people were beginning to piece their lives back together.
She said: “Everybody knows we are coming out of a very difficult situation, the civil war. People start breathing, the remaining Christians are beginning to stand on their feet.
“Then the pandemic came and people collapsed. It’s a big burden – no work, no jobs.”
Sister Annie stressed that the combination of the civil war, the pandemic and fresh economic sanctions against the government of Syria have left many people in abject poverty.
She said: “Life without electricity and gas is very hard and that’s because of the sanctions.
“Only every couple of hours we get one hour of electricity. That is not enough to heat a house.
“There is not enough gas to cook food.” Read more …