Embrace’s Director of Programmes, Jamie Eyre spoke to Chick Yuill at Premier Christian Radio about the aftermath of the earthquake in Syria, the reality on the ground and how Embrace’s partners are helping those affected.

You can listen to the interview here, or read the transcript below.

Chick: Can you tell us a bit about your charity and how it is responding to the situation?

Jamie: Embrace is a partner-based organisation, so we work with local Christians, Christians like you and me, churches, community-based organisations across the Middle East. We have a footprint of organisations that we work with inside Syria, and that’s the response that I’m here to talk about today.

Chick: What are you hearing from Christians and partners who are in the affected areas?

Jamie: The stories you’ll have heard in the Today programme and you’ll read in other media are very much the same. People are scared to go back into their homes because of the cracks. The community centres and churches that they work in are damaged. People are sleeping in their cars. There is real terror, people have had a really difficult couple of days and this is not going to go away. It’s worth bearing in mind that Syria is in the twelfth year of a conflict. Already the humanitarian needs were recognised to be bigger this year than they’ve been throughout this period, and this earthquake happens at the same time, so there is a real need for people to respond.

Chick: You are launching an emergency appeal that goes directly to Christian partners on the ground. How can people here help and how do they know that the funds are actually going to Christian work?

Jamie: We’ve been working with partners in Syria for the last six or seven years and any money that comes through to Embrace will go to those partners directly. The network of churches is really well established, and one of the organisations has 40 operational hubs across Syria, working in Aleppo, Lattakia, Hama, Idlib, Tartous, all across the northern stretch, and they are working with people on the ground. These people themselves have been affected but they know their communities and they are also able to respond very practically, giving people somewhere to stay. We’ve heard of churches opening their doors, community centres being repurposed as centres where people can sleep. These are really well-established organisations

Chick: In Syria, with the war there, even without this earthquake things were pretty bad, so it’s almost impossible to imagine how bad things are there at the moment.

Jamie: If you read the UN and other reports, the suggestion is there were more people in need of humanitarian assistance this year than in the last twelve years, so already before this happened people were in significant need. This is a country under sanctions, this is a country that’s partially controlled by the government, partially under control of rebels, access is not easy at the best of times, so it was already a very, very difficult situation.

Chick: How can the listener connect with your emergency appeal?

Jamie: On our appeal page they’ll find photographs and a bit about the response that is already going on and an opportunity to give. We’re also encouraging people to pray. There is a prayer you can use yourself and to encourage your friends to pray into the situation. We want people to give, but also to pray as we have a God who wants to intervene.

Chick: I’m sure people will be digging into their pockets. There has seldom been a more worthy cause. The suffering is beyond imagination. Thank you Jamie for what you and Embrace the Middle East are doing at this time.

Jamie: Thank you so much. This is an opportunity for Christians in the UK to reach out to their local brothers and sisters in the Middle East and really help.

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