NEW YORK — Catholic Near East Welfare Association (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 September 17. 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.
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.
An agency of the Holy See, Catholic Near East Welfare Association works for, through, and with the Eastern churches. Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, CNEWA rushes help to displaced and refugee families; offers maternity and health care to those most in need; supports the formation and education of seminarians, religious sisters, and catechetical leaders; sponsors catechesis programs for children and young adults; and funds initiatives for the marginalized, especially survivors of human trafficking, the elderly and those with special needs.
CNEWA is a recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States by the State of New York. All contributions are tax deductible and tax receipts are issued. Donations can be made online at cnewa.org; by phone at 800-442-6392; or by mail, CNEWA, 1011 First Avenue, New York, NY 10022.