CNEWA

CNEWA Launches Emergency Campaign for Lebanon

CNEWA is releasing $250,000 in emergency aid to Lebanon, focusing its initial response on families fleeing the south.

CNEWA has launched an emergency campaign to raise funds for displaced families in Lebanon, immediately releasing $250,000 to procure bedding, food, potable water, nursing formula and medicines, said Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of CNEWA-Pontifical Mission. 

More than a million people in Lebanon (of an estimated total population of 5.8 million people) have been displaced since the crisis between Israel and Hezbollah escalated after 17 September. More than 2,000 people have been killed, some 10,000 are missing and scores are injured as Israeli airstrikes have spread from the south of Lebanon to central Beirut.

More than 8,000 families living in villages near the Israeli border — many of them Christian — have been ordered to evacuate. Given only minutes notice, families are fleeing their homes for refuge in the north with little more than their clothes on their backs, finding shelter in parochial and government schools and parish compounds. 

“Lebanon faces a humanitarian disaster,” said CNEWA-Pontifical Mission’s Michel Constantin, who directs CNEWA’s operations for Lebanon, Syria and northern Iraq from Beirut. “Many of these families are desperate, sleeping on the streets … I’ve seen them in their pajamas and slippers, and I fear they will fall through the cracks of the promised international relief efforts, which focus their efforts on more formal displacement centers.

“They are suffering in silence.”

CNEWA-Pontifical Mission is focusing its initial relief efforts on families fleeing the south and seeking shelter in church-run facilities, working for example with bishops and parish priests in the archeparchies in Tyre; the Good Shepherd Sisters in the Bekaa Valley; the Joint Christian Committee and Little Sisters of Nazareth in Dbayeh, northeast of Beirut; the Salvatorian Fathers and Blessed Sacrament Sisters in the Keserwan district; and the Sisters of Jesus and Mary in Bourj Hammoud. 

In this first phase of relief, the Beirut team estimates it will need $560,000 for food packages and hygiene kits for 8,000 families; $90,000 for mattresses and bedding for 2,000 people; and $50,000 for counseling for 500 mothers and their children. 

To rush your gift, please click here, or visit cnewa.org.

Michael J.L. La Civita is CNEWA’s director of communications.

Related Content:

Recent Posts

Get to know us and stay informed about the impact your support makes.

Nous constatons que votre préférence linguistique est le français.
Voudriez-vous être redirigé sur notre site de langue française?

Oui! Je veux y accéder.

Hemos notado que su idioma preferido es español. ¿Le gustaría ver la página de Asociación Católica para el Bienestar del Cercano Oriente en español?

Vee página en español

share