What is the situation in Syria today?
It is a tormented country. After 12 years of war, the pain of these people cannot even be described or measured. People live in desperation because of the cold, the increasing hunger and the lack of electricity, diesel, gas. In most Syrian cities, electricity is supplied only a few hours a day (from one to four) and people suffer the harsh cold of winter, without being able to heat themselves. And in summer, when the heat becomes unbearable, there is no fresh water to drink since the refrigerator only serves as a storage room.
And on the economic front?
Prices are skyrocketing: they have increased by about 150-300% in the last three months and for many products by about 800% in a year. The embargo imposed by the West is terrible and the people are paying the price. Although Syria is rich in oil and gas resources, today, due to the occupation of foreign forces still present in the country, much of the local oil production is stolen and diverted elsewhere. It is simply absurd and inhumane to think that what a pensioner earns per month is enough to buy no more than 10 liters of gasoline. Or 12 kg of bananas or 4 kg of meat. When I arrived in Aleppo in 2019, the average fare I paid for transportation for a distance of about 2-3 km was 500 Syrian pounds. Today, the same route costs 8,000 Syrian pounds. People tell me that before the war (in 2010) people lived very well in Syria. In Aleppo, for example, people went to a restaurant every week, had a car, a house, gas, could travel and gasoline was very cheap. One of the protagonists of the RestarT program in Homs who opened a small grocery store told me that some people come to him to buy just an egg or 100 grams of coffee. They can’t afford more. The Syrian people have been wounded in their dignity.
Does this mean that most of the population today lives below the poverty line?
Of course! 90% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day . How does a person survive on this and cover basic needs?
And what is the security situation in the country ?
The inhabited areas are no longer hit by missiles, but the war continues, it has never stopped. Even if no one talks about it anymore. The airport in Damascus has been hit several times in recent months, as has the one in Aleppo. I hear every day from people that the situation is much worse now than during the hard years of armed fighting. And what saddens people even more is that, apart from Pope Francis who often mentions Syria, almost no one talks about the situation here anymore. We really feel forgotten by the rest of the world.
How are the Syrian people reacting?
In these three years since I have been in Syria I have learned to appreciate the enormous capacity of this people, whom I love and respect so much, to endure the harsh situation they have had to endure because of the war. Despite everything , many, anchored to a solid faith in God, still manage to give joy around them : a kind of paradox that the West and the affluent society perhaps struggle to understand. Social relationships here are warm, people help each other, robberies are few or non-existent, children are educated with solid values and loneliness finds little space.
In this context, what is the value of AMU’s work?
The generosity and concrete love of many in the West who have a big heart help us to continue to believe together in a better future , or at least to survive in the present. Last year, among the many activities in the educational, health and emergency fields for the elderly, families, young people, children and teenagers carried out as the Focolare Movement – especially through the AMU – we were able to start 30 income-generating activities in Homs (more than 60% destroyed during the war). We are now concluding another 20 new projects in Aleppo , with the RestarT program. Significant experiences are lived in trying to bring hope to people through the simple fact of restoring dignity through a work activity that perhaps had been lost during the war .
Can we still talk about hope in Syria?
Hope is almost impossible to talk about here in Syria, but it can be generated through concrete actions of support and closeness to those who suffer and are desperate . Christian hope makes me believe that better days will come, even if the whole context around me makes me see the opposite. The number of those who still believe in a better future unfortunately decreases every day.
