Since 2018, the Franciscan Care Center has been active in Aleppo, providing a center for psychological rehabilitation for those children who otherwise would never have been able to build a future away from abuse and brutality.
The situation facing the youngest segments of the population is alarming, especially in Aleppo, the epicenter of the war between 2014 and 2016. The Center supports thousands of children, but each one of them is individually cared for with great attention and receives the support they need from a medical and psychological team funded by the project.
At the Center, which is active in some of the premises of the Terra Santa College and in the outdoor spaces arranged during 2023, courses in sports, art, music, and English and French language are provided, as well as psychological rehabilitation paths such as art therapy and music therapy, to create a healthy and positive environment around the children. To facilitate the aspect of physical rehabilitation as well, we invested this year in setting up appropriate outdoor spaces: two football fields and one basketball court are now available, along with covered courts, a swimming pool, and a large open space dedicated to the activities of the younger ones.
Here, 700 children are assisted; 270 are enrolled in the Terra Santa Football Academy. The FCC has also been a reference center for the emergency situation after the earthquake: 350 people were supported through the distribution of food items, and 5,000 were hosted in the months of February and March 2023.
The Franciscan Care Center also provides assistance outside of its headquarters at the Terra Santa College:
In East Aleppo, in collaboration with the Mufti and the Mukthar of the area, we have opened three reception centers for children - many of whom are orphans and many are disabled - living in the poorest and most degraded areas. Many of them are forced to leave school very early, around the age of nine: the Center, in addition to offering psychological support and rehabilitative therapies for children with motor and intellectual disabilities, ensures educational recovery to contribute to the literacy and, therefore, the emancipation of the youngest. Mothers and women of Aleppo are also the focus of the Center's attention, supported materially and psychologically through specific assistance programs. In these three centers, 4,000 children are assisted, including 681 with disabilities, and assistance is provided to 2,292 mothers and women from East Aleppo.
In Damascus, a music school has been established in some unused premises belonging to the Custody of the Holy Land convent, offering Syrian children courses in guitar, piano, violin, and drums. The center was established in collaboration with a local pianist, director of the Harmony Center for Music Education in Damascus; the Pro Terra Sancta Association supports current costs, contributing to the purchase of new musical instruments and funding part of the teachers' salaries. There are 136 children enrolled in this music school, with 8 local teachers working there.
Since November 2021, the commitment of the Franciscan Care Center has also been active in Lebanon, in Beirut, in the form of an art therapy center aimed at the psychological rehabilitation of Lebanese children. 120 people participate, and 8 local workers are involved in the center's activities.
In 2023, a new center was opened in Hama, Syria, at the complex of the Church of the Immaculate Virgin of the Catholic Syriacs of Hama. The center provides support and assistance to 200 children.
