Dear friends and supporters of the Korbgemeinschaft!
Following the abrupt changes at the beginning of December last year, Syria has been experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people were dismissed from their jobs from one day to the next. They have not received a salary since then nor any type of compensation from the new government. Hundreds of thousands of additional families are now living in Syria without any income. Many of these families are going hungry. I keep getting desperate calls from our local project partners and from individual priests and clergy for urgent help at Easter. Already in previous years, Korbgemeinschaftused to organize around 1,000 food parcels for Christmas and Easter. This time, the support is needed by 5,000 families who are registered by our local project partners and whose social needs are continuously evaluated. We are speaking of extremely poor families.
In Syria, people can no longer survive without help from outside. I have often mentioned this in my letters and unfortunately this has become even more pressing today than it was in the past.
That is why I am asking all of you, our friends, supporters and benefactors, to help us show to these people God’s mercy by sending them aid packages with basic food. Through the hands of our local project partners, we would like to provide the families with Easter parcels containing chicken and eggs, plus some basics such as rice, sugar, oil, butter, tea, etc.
Attached I am sending an appeal for donations, asking you kindly to pass it on to acquaintances, friends, prayer circles and other groups, according to your discretion. At the same time, I urge priests to display this appeal on bulletin boards in churches and parishes in order to sensitize people to the plight of fellow Christians and to draw attention to the responsibility for the mission of Christians in Syria. Some friends have their own creative ideas for collecting donations, e.g. at parish coffees, flea markets, Lenten soups, benefit concerts, prayer evenings, birthday celebrations, anniversary events, exhibitions, discussion groups, etc. Perhaps some of you come up with further ideas.
One of the values of a Christian is to bring joy wherever he/she is. With God’s help, we would like to pass on this joy to our fellow Christians in Syria.
I should like to thank you in advance on behalf of those in need for any help you can give.
We rely on the great love that Jesus gives us in this time of grace.
United in this love, I remain with my best wishes to all of you for an Easter full of joy and grace,
Yours in Christ
Fr. Hanna Ghoneim