PROJECT HOPE

Three team members of dia-LOGOS have just returned from Aleppo, Syria, four days before the earthquake struck.  As a ministry we have partnerships with 12 Churches and Church leaders in Syria with five of them being based in Aleppo.  Our hearts are deeply touched and broken by the hardship and trauma after the earthquake and have decided to launch a project that will assist the local churches to reach out to their communities and radiate the light of Christ in a very very dark time.

PROJECT HOPE

It is said that if you want to destroy a man, take away his hope.  The same can be said of a nation.  The one commodity that is currently in shorter supply than the lack of electricity, fuel, gas, and food, is HOPE.

A powerful  7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria early Monday morning, 6 February 2023.  By Wednesday 1 March, three weeks later, more than 50,000 people have been confirmed dead, and tens of thousands more injured. Officials continue to update the death toll as rescue efforts have now turned to recovery.

Communities were destroyed as thousands of buildings collapsed in both countries.  Syria, with unstable buildings due to a prolonged war, is a major concern, in particularly north-western Syria where more than 4 million people are already relying on humanitarian assistance.

The quake, with the epicenter 23 kilometres east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, is one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years.

For the people of Aleppo, the earthquake could not have come at a worse time.  The city is still in the process of recovering from a devastating and destructive twelve-year war.  The earthquake did not come as a new disaster, it came as an aggregating factor to already destroyed infrastructures and depleted resources.  Hospitals are understaffed and overcrowded.  Doctors are overworked and under-resourced.  Medicine is unavailable.

ALEPPO

Aleppo was Syria’s most populous city when the civil war arrived in July 2012.  But this changed dramatically during the war.  According to a study done by UNITAR in cooperation with UNESCO, Aleppo has the highest number of destroyed/severely damaged buildings in Syria at a total of 35,722 buildings, of which 4,377 are completely destroyed, 14,680 severely damaged and 16,269 moderately damaged. Most of these buildings are unstable and hanging by a thread. The added danger during a natural disaster is that many of the buildings that have been re-occupied by their owners will now place them in an extremely vulnerable situation.  One small tremor can result in many more deaths.

In Aleppo today there is no electricity (only an hour of power per day), very little fuel and gas, a shortage of food, very little medicine, under-equipped hospitals, and doctors are leaving the country.  Hope is a precious commodity that seems to disappear when one loses sight of it.  The rubble in Aleppo contains more than just mortar and bricks, it is also the graveyard of buried dreams and hopes.

We have the ability, the presence, and the resources to restore it.

At dia-LOGOS we are willing to deliver it; if you will help us gather it?

CURRENT SITUATION:

After the initial earthquake shook Turkey, 24,000 rescue workers from a magnitude of nations, humanitarian organisations, and relief agencies have flooded to the region.  But the actual trauma and hardship will start when the relief workers leave in two months’ time when the rubble is removed, and the bodies have been buried.  That is when the actual needs are exposed and the suffering starts.  The world has the ability to move from one disaster to the next and Turkey and Syria will soon be forgotten.  That’s when we want to step in, but we want to be proactive in our fundraising and our planning.

A team from dia-LOGOS, consisting of a medical team, a journalist, a photographer, and a number of assistants will travel to Syria in April to meet with Church leaders and extend a hand of HOPE.  We trust the Lord for as many funds as possible to strengthen and support the local Church in Aleppo to reach out to their communities, providing hope and bringing life

• Will you consider contributing to the project?
• Will you consider being a voice and challenging others in your fellowship/ group/ church to be part of this initiative?
• Will you be an answer to their prayers?
• Will you be the difference between despair and hope?

To contribute please make a direct transfer into the following account.

Dia-LOGOS (NPC)
First National Bank
Cheque Account 62875701205
Universal Branch Code 250655

Please use HOPE and your email address as reference