Saint Louis Hospital, Aleppo, Syria Three Catholic-run hospitals providing life-saving services free of charge to vulnerable Syrians hope to aid some 50,000 patients by the project’s end next year.
“Institutions in Syria now are having a lot of difficulties…so, this project supporting these hospitals is helping them to go on,” said Flavia Chevallard, project coordinator for Operation Open Hospitals in Syria implemented by AVSI, a nongovernmental organisation founded in Italy in 1972.
The project is the brainchild of Cardinal Mario Zenari, the nuncio to Syria, who in 2016 sought practical ways to support Syrians in the midst of crippling conflict.
Offices
AVSI set up social offices in three historic, non-profit Catholic hospitals: the Italian and French hospitals in the capital, Damascus, as well as St Louis Hospital in the northern city of Aleppo. Staff make assessments for the most vulnerable people to receive free medical care.
The open hospitals project is also supported by the US and Italian bishops, the Catholic Health Association, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and Catholic aid agencies in Spain and Germany, as well as other donors. “This is an emergency project supporting the hospitals to make sure that, after the war, when the situation improves, the hospitals will be open. So, not to let everything be destroyed because of the war, the economic crisis, to help these stay in place.
“This is a big value,” said Mrs Chevallard, speaking from the French Hospital in Damascus via videoconference.
The hospital, founded in 1905, is run by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.