The Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Syria on the Iraqi refugee situation:

According to Mgr Antoine Audo, Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Catholic leaders in Syria are grappling with a massive 25,000 refugees desperate to escape from Iraq. During a recent visit to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the prelate stressed that Syria had received the vast majority of refugees and added that the Iraqis arriving in Damascus had been given “a warm welcome” for which they were very grateful. He said that the refugees had packed into Damascus, with the authorities allowing them in without visas and supporting the efforts of Catholic leaders to provide accommodation and access to health care.

Bishop Audo went on to thank ACN for the emergency packages dispatched since the Iraqis began arriving in Syria after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He explained that in recent months there had been an explosion in the number of refugees from Iraq and that ACN’s help had also funded urgent hospital operations for the refugees. The bishop reported that another part of the aid was going towards catechesis for up to 300 children. “There is a big need to help the people in Damascus. We cannot provide a solution for all the problems but we are doing whatever we can. We are very grateful to Aid to the Church in Need.”

Do go read the news page and more of the ACN site if you never have before. What they do is exactly what the name of the group suggests: support the work of the Church in the poorest areas of the globe, in projects ranging from assisting in the support of impoverished religious communities, catechetical materials (see the post below the one I quoted for how the group helped in a simple project in Nicaragua) and so on. Their largest and most well-known effort is their Bible for Children, now available in 150 languages.