Schools in ruins, displaced families, houses to rebuild, refugees in their thousands – this is the present reality of many of the cities in Syria, affected by a war between the regime in Damascus and the forces opposing president Bashar al-Assad. One of the cities that has borne the heaviest burden of the conflict is Aleppo (around 300km northeast of the capital), where the largest Armenian community in the country, of around 40,000 people, is based.

In November, the Trustee Board of the Foundation approved € 120,000 of humanitarian aid for this community, funds that will be managed by a group of organizations headed by the Archbishop of Aleppo. The money released by the Armenian Communities Department is targeted to aid the recovery of Aleppo, but will also benefit other communities, including in Damascus. During the past year, the Foundation has already approved approximately € 80,000 in grants for refugees who had left Syria.

Support for education

Forced to flee from the war, thousands of Syrian university students now find themselves without a way to continue their studies. In the face of this crisis, Jorge Sampaio, the former High Commissioner for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, created the Global Partnership for Syrian Students, in conjunction with other organisations. The idea of this partnership is to assist in the payment of these students’ fees and to help them complete their courses in the countries where they are refugees. The Gulbenkian Foundation will support this initiative until 2015, giving roughly € 200,000 in scholarships to Syrian-Armenian students.

Additionally, around 350 Syrian student refugees in Armenia will receive support from the Armenian Communities Department in order to complete their studies.

Primary and secondary schools in Syria were also hard hit by the war. The Foundation has set aside about € 125,000 to support 22 such schools in the country, so that thousands of children may continue to learn.

United Nations figures from December show that this war has already brought about more than 130,000 fatalities, more than a third of which were civilian deaths.