Church aid agencies partner with Middle East Council of Churches and The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East- Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development (GOPA-DERD) to provide life saving aid.

International and Australian church aid agencies have rallied to provide financial support, material aid such as food and shelter for the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the 6 February earthquake in Syria.

Continuing aftershocks are causing ongoing distress and injury as many buildings are unstable.

Access to communities in Northern Syria where the worst affects of the powerful earthquake have given rise to great humanitarian needs has had to be negotiated by the UN to lift international sanctions imposed on the government of Syria. More border crossings are needed to get the aid in to meet the scale of needs for food, medical care, shelter and potable water. 

Church aid agencies in Australia that are members of the international ACT Alliance are partnering with the church agencies that have been operating in Northern Syria through its years of protracted crisis and whose personnel were already on the ground providing humanitarian assistance at the time of the February earthquake. 

Mr Geoff Robinson of the NCCA’s international aid agency, Act for Peace, chairs the regional Pacific, Australia, New Zealand group of ACT Alliance members.

The Geneva-based ACT Alliance, the humanitarian response agency of the World Council of Churches has an operational group called the  pdf Syria Forum (562 KB) . The ACT Syria Forum works together coordinating the humanitarian operations and support programs in Syria with the Middle East Council of Churches and GOPA-DERD.

Read the list of members of ACT Alliance partners working in Northern Syria: