SASKATOON — The non-profit group Catholic Near East Welfare Association Canada is ensuring that it continues to provide immediate needs to people, especially those in areas of conflict like Gaza and Ukraine.
CNEWA is a papal agency established in 1926 by Pope Pius XI. It mainly works to identify the needs of Eastern Catholic churches and devise solutions. The organization provides pastoral care and humanitarian support to Northeast Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and India.
CNEWA Canada's National Director, Dr. Adriana Bara, said the organization, in addition to pastoral and other church-related programs, continues to provide humanitarian assistance—food, medicine, and shelter—to areas of conflict like the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
"Our association works with the Catholic Eastern Churches in the Middle East in the Holy Land; we have an office in Jerusalem and Eastern Europe—like in Ukraine, Romania, Armenia, and Georgia," said Bara.
"We assist with immediate needs. For example, we have an office in Jerusalem in the Gaza Strip. Our colleagues in Jerusalem went to Gaza and worked to provide help in two churches, The Holy Family Catholic Church and St. Porphyrios Orthodox church," said Bara.
She added they do not see race, colour, social status or religious affiliation in helping during times of crisis, like wars and natural or man-made disasters.
"We help people, not because they are Christians. We help them because we are Christians. Whoever comes and knocks on the church doors, they receive help if they need it," said Bara.
"Majority in Gaza are Muslims. They found shelters in the two [Holy Family and St. Porphyrios] churches. They just come to the church, and the doors are open."
They also work with local humanitarian groups in Ukraine, especially in war-torn areas that need hospital equipment and setting up portable clinics.
"We help people displaced by the war. Those who come from Eastern Ukraine come to the west, in Lviv. Even the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv was transformed into a shelter for internally displaced people for a long time," said Bara.
"I was in Ukraine for solidarity. We visited with our [CNEWA] president, Monsignor Peter Vaccari, and Ukraine coordinator Anna Dombrovska to see our programs in orphanages. Many monasteries and churches opened their doors where people displaced by the war stay."
She said that people who seek shelter in monasteries or churches stay until they find a place to work and start a new life. But they also return to give money to the monastery so the monks, priests, religious, and volunteers can help the refugees.
"There are no shelters in Ukraine because people and churches open their homes to those in need. You can see the love in practice there. It's fantastic," said Bara.
CNEWA Canada also helps with the formation of priests in Egypt and irrigation to farmers in southern Lebanon, educates children in Ethiopia and religious sisters in India, provides emergency relief to Christian refugees in Syria, and counsels war-scarred people, especially children.
They use their network of Eastern Catholic churches to assist in areas of poverty, refugees, and people displaced by war. They provide the basic needs of vulnerable people to restore their human dignity.
