In 2011, war engulfed Syria, and Aleppo quickly became the hotspot of the conflict. Since the beginning of the clashes, Pro Terra Sancta has been active alongside the city's population: it has established an Emergency Center that operates in collaboration with the friars of the Parish of San Francesco.
The earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria in February 2023 created new needs and emergencies that persist to this day, more than a year after the tragedy. The Emergency Center played a crucial role in supporting the most affected families: 6,000 families are assisted through the distribution of food, medical assistance, vouchers for access to electricity and heating, clothes, detergents, hygiene products, as well as infant products such as diapers and powdered milk.
The Center also played a role in supporting displaced persons in the months following the earthquake: between February and March 2023, Pro Terra Sancta helped accommodate over 6,000 people in Aleppo, in the Azizieh convent and the Terra Sancta College, and around 700 in Latakia, in the Sacred Heart convent. Urgent medical assistance was offered to over 2,000 individuals.
The assistance center also initiated a social kitchen service: a canteen that prepares and distributes 1,400 meals every week, for 5 days a week; in 2023, approximately 16,800 beneficiaries were reached, totaling about 474,000 hot meals.
The canteen is complemented by a food parcel distribution system to meet the needs of entire families, reaching about 2,000 families every month; there is also a home delivery service of meals prepared in the canteen for about a hundred elderly, sick, or disabled people. These services are crucial to address food shortages and the lack of electricity, which prevents cooking in homes.
Pro Terra Sancta has not forgotten the need to address, in addition to the most urgent material aspects, also the psychological impact that such a tragedy has had and continues to have on the entire population and especially on children: trauma coping and overcoming pathways have been activated for 6,000 Syrian children and adolescents showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. To further support the psychological and cultural needs of Aleppo's youth, scholarships were activated, financially assisting 250 students, and after-school activities benefiting about 120 youngsters.
