First Congregational Church

Missions Ministry: Final Report on Support for Syrians

On February 6th, 2023, a category 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks hit Turkey and Northern Syria, leaving in its aftermath a devastating humanitarian crisis. As a church, we responded with donations from our members, our Missions Ministry, and the network of people with whom we are connected beyond the church to aid the Support for Syrians efforts spearheaded by the daughter and son-in-law of a church member. The Missions Ministry is so grateful for the outpouring of support and, especially, for the careful and caring ways in which the funds were disbursed. In total, Support for Syrians raised $12,820 for families in northwestern Syria impacted by earthquakes. Donations via the FCCNA congregation amounted to $9,046, and an additional $3,774 was contributed by our two Support for Syrians leaders and their friends and extended family.

Our two leaders, assisted by friends and relatives living in the region, were able to deliver a portion of the relief in the spring of 2023. This person-to-person relief effort provided supplies, food, clothing, medicine, money for medical care, and other basic needs to people in two areas of northwestern Syria who lost their homes and belongings in the earthquakes and are trying, quite simply, to survive.

Our two leaders reported on the distribution of the remaining funds: All of the families to whom supplies were delivered in 2023 and 2024 “had previously been displaced by the war and then the earthquake. For many, their children have never lived in a stable environment or received consistent education, and as (our trusted contact in Syria) met with families to distribute supplies purchased with donated funds, he found that, overwhelmingly, parents wanted an opportunity for their children to learn to read, write, and do basic mathematics. That need, he learned, (as the relief effort continued) was even greater for them than the need for daily necessities.

“After talking with many families with similar concerns, (our trusted contact and my husband) began to research whether there were any educational opportunities for children in this region. Some of the families mentioned an educational nonprofit called Abjad Initiative, which over the last year has begun expanding their school so that more children who were displaced by and lost their educational opportunities due to the earthquake might be accommodated. Abjad’s school, named “Mariam School,” serves displaced students and is located in a camp northwest of Idlib city, where 515 families, displaced by war and by the earthquake, live in tents. Mariam School is an elementary school for students from ages 6 to 12 that serves a total of 373 students, and the staff who work in the school are Syrians from this community who are committed to providing quality education to the children in this camp. Over the past few months, (my husband) had many meetings with the founder of Abjad, and we were able to arrange to use the remaining $5,700 of the Support for Syrians funds to pay for the education of 30 fourth-grade students ($190 each, including their tuition, books, other supplies, and activity fees for one year).”