{"id":6519,"date":"2023-04-07T11:58:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T18:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=6519"},"modified":"2025-04-25T18:52:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T01:52:57","slug":"living-holy-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2023\/04\/07\/living-holy-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Months After Earthquake, Thousands of People in Aleppo are Living Holy Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(ANS – Aleppo) – \u201cWe are trying to return to normalcy, but we are still in a waiting mode,\u201d say Salesian missionaries in Aleppo, who are experiencing another special Holy Week together with the local population. The normalcy is represented by the resumption of activities for more than a thousand children and youth at the Salesian Youth Center in Aleppo, while the waiting \u201cis due to the fear of another big earthquake, the sleeping problems of most of the population, and the thousands of people who still cannot return to their homes.\u201d Salesians continue to be actively involved in dealing with the emergency, distributing food, fuel vouchers, and free technical assistance to monitor structural damage to buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamil was sleeping on the 11th floor of his building with his parents and siblings when the earthquake struck Syria and Turkey in the early hours of Feb. 6, 2023. He recounts, \u201cI don\u2019t know how we made it down all the floors, but we made it to safety.\u201d It took weeks before they could return home, during which time they were always hosted by the Salesians in Aleppo. \u201cWe have returned home,\u201d he continues, \u201cbut my father could not sleep; he had trouble breathing and his heart was pounding, so now he sleeps in a small store where he works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earthquake worsened the country\u2019s health situation, which was already dire due to the war. Cases of cholera, scabies, diarrhea, hepatitis, and measles have been detected, but due to a shortage of doctors and infrastructure, private hospitals, inaccessible to most, are the only solution. According to the United Nations, more than 9,000 buildings have collapsed in Syria, and just as many are uninhabitable. iIt has been estimated that 8.8 million people are affected by this natural disaster and need emergency assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To cope with the trauma and offer psychosocial support to the people of Aleppo, the Salesians in Damascus have so far organized three sessions, three days each, dedicated to hosting some 25-30 young animators from the Don Bosco House in Aleppo. \u201cThe initiative has been wonderful for the young people,\u201d reports Mateo Colmenares, a Salesian volunteer in Aleppo. \u201cOn the one hand, it was the first days since the earthquake when we all agreed we had rested and slept well; on the other hand, it was a way to recharge our batteries to continue helping those in need during this Holy Week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of people are still unable to access their homes in Aleppo. The Salesians have resumed activities for 1,100 children and youth, not to mention the people affected by the earthquake. These days, many families go to the \u201cDon Bosco House\u201d center for Easter celebrations, in an atmosphere marked by hope as their only anchor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the first weeks of March, all the people hosted by us have returned to their homes or to temporary rented housing. Every 20 days, we continue to help by distributing vouchers for food, hygiene products, and fuel to 200 families. For those who fear their homes are still unsafe, we have offered qualified engineers to assess the damage so they can receive financial assistance for rehabilitation,\u201d Colmenares explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to a project to install solar panels at the Don Bosco House in Aleppo so that they are not dependent on fuel and generators during the 22 hours a day when there is no power, the Salesians will initiate another project to provide medical care and accompaniment to over 200 people whose cardiovascular health has deteriorated due to the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, Salesian organizations at the international level have covered the needs of the earthquake victim population to the tune of 1.8 million euros; \u201cMisiones Salesianas,\u201d the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid, alone has sent nearly 400,000 euros – earmarked for emergency aid in Aleppo and shelter at the Kafroun house (more than 100,000); educational responses in Aleppo (77,000); installation of solar panels (50,000); and reconstruction projects to be implemented in the coming months (160,000).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(ANS – Aleppo) – \u201cWe are trying to return to normalcy, but we are still in a waiting mode,\u201d say Salesian missionaries in Aleppo, who are experiencing another special Holy Week together with the local population. The normalcy is represented by the resumption of activities for more than a thousand children and youth at the Salesian Youth Center in Aleppo, while the waiting \u201cis due … Continuar leyendo Two Months After Earthquake, Thousands of People in Aleppo are Living Holy Week<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[516714022],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-salesian-world-news"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-1H9","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6522,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions\/6522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}