Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: 100 thousand euros from the Croatian Bishops’ Conference and two truckloads of aids. Caritas campaigns in Bosnia Herzegovina and Bulgaria

The Croatian Bishops’ Conference allocated 100 thousand euros to the people affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, while Caritas Croatia will soon send two truckloads of food to the Turkish city of Adana, very close to the epicentre of the earthquake. The president of Caritas Croatia, mgr. Bože Radoš, explained that all of Caritas’s aids will be equally shared between Turkey and Syria. In just one day, 18,500 euros were paid into the Caritas account in the Balkan country, while 16,000 euros were donated by phone. In the meantime, the diocesan charitable initiatives in Croatia go on, this time in the diocese of  Rijeka with a letter written by the archbishop, Mate Uzinić, to the congregation. “We cannot change the tragic situation of so many of our brothers and sisters who are suffering but we can be close to them in our personal and family prayers”, he writes. He invites to raise funds after Mass from 12th to 19th February, and people are encouraged to take part in the Caritas fund-raising campaign. A fund-raising campaign has also been started by Caritas in Bosnia Herzegovina by opening a special phone number for the people affected by the earthquake, as reported by father Tomo Knežević, who mentioned “the firmness of the people of the Balkan country who know what it means to be helped”. In Bulgaria, instead, the Caritas agency in Vitania, Rakovski and Belozem is collecting warm clothes and blankets and toiletries to meet basic needs.
Iva Mihailova