{"id":29251,"date":"2018-06-19T07:21:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T07:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=29251"},"modified":"2018-06-19T07:21:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T07:21:07","slug":"syria-the-good-samaritans-of-the-valley-of-the-christians-josue-villalon-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/06\/19\/syria-the-good-samaritans-of-the-valley-of-the-christians-josue-villalon-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"SYRIA:  The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the  Christians &#8211; Josue Villalon &#8211; ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>SYRIA<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the Christians<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mzeina Hospital is situated in the small town of the same name, one of several that make up the Valley of the Christians (<em>Wadi Al-Nasara<\/em> in Arabic), a rural region of Syria, close to the frontier with Lebanon and roughly halfway between the city of Homs and the Mediterranean coast. \u201cThe hospital has been open for four years now and for the past two years, the number of admittances, operations and basic treatments has been growing steadily\u201d the hospital director, Dr Sam Abboud, assures us. The war which continues to tear this country apart seems a long way from this region, yet the doctors and their co-workers at the hospital assure us that the situation is still as bad as or worse than before. \u201cPeople come to us asking for help and tell us that in other hospitals they couldn\u2019t get treatment because they did not have enough money. We don\u2019t simply tell them to go away; we try to help them in every way we can\u201d, says Toni Tannous, the head of the physiotherapy team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The doctors and the other employees at the hospital have themselves had personal experience of the consequences of the war. \u201cI myself had to flee from Homs because of the war\u201d, Toni continues, \u201cand now I am working here. All of us feel a sense of responsibility in one way or another to help in whatever way we can.\u201d This hospital, which treats thousands of people every month and has almost 500 inpatients, works in collaboration with the Saint Peter\u2019s Aid Centre run by the Melkite Catholic Church in the nearby town of Marmarita. \u201cFrom the health centre run by the Melkite Church in Marmarita, we attend to over a hundred urgent medical cases a month, in addition to other cases where we pay for medicines. We take the families to the hospital and have a working agreement with the Mzeina Hospital to treat them there\u201d, explains El\u00edas Jahloum, a volunteer and coordinator of the Saint Peter\u2019s Aid Centre. \u201cIn the Valley of the Christians there are no public hospitals; the closest ones are in Homs or Tartus, an hour or more away by car on account of the Army security controls. That is why the healthcare service offered by the Church in this region is greatly appreciated by those displaced by the war, who have few financial means.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">El\u00edas accompanied a delegation from the international Catholic pastoral charity and pontifical foundation <strong><em>Aid to the Church in Need (ACN),<\/em><\/strong> who visited some of the inpatients in the Mzeina Hospital. Their care is paid for by the Saint Peter\u2019s aid centre with the financial support of ACN. \u201cThank you for coming to see us, Elias, and thanks also to your benefactors\u201d, said Najwa Arabi, a middle-aged mother of a family who had just undergone surgery on her stomach. \u201cWe know that there are people in many countries around the world who are helping us. Every day we pray for them and give thanks to God\u201d, she added. On the next ward is Maryam Hourani, the mother of Janadios, a little boy barely more than a year old who is recovering from bronchiolitis. \u201cHe was very ill and could hardly breathe when we brought him to the hospital\u201d, she explains. \u201cWe contacted Elias and he assured us that the Saint Peter\u2019s Centre would pay his costs. I can only say thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201d Equally grateful is a young woman by the name of Shasha Khoury, who is recovering from surgery for a breast tumour. \u201cI\u2019m five months pregnant\u201d, she says. \u201cIt is a boy and he\u2019s going to be called Fayez, which means \u2018winner\u2019\u201d, she smiles. Dr Abboud, who is an ear nose and throat specialist, explains that some of the operations they perform are free and that they have a special programme for children and young people with hearing problems. \u201cMany of these cases are caused by bombs and other explosions during the war\u201d, he explains, adding that the biggest difficulties they face are the lack of infrastructure, obtaining new medical equipment with which they can operate better, and the constant power cuts. \u201cAlthough in this last year we have managed to obtain medicines which until recently it was impossible to find in Syria\u201d, he concedes. As we leave the hospital, El\u00edas and Toni say goodbye with a big hug. Both men are very heavy built and look almost like brothers. \u201cWhenever a difficult case crops up in the hospital, with a patient who has very little money, we always try to help by giving a discount and extending the payment period. When such cases occur, we call the Saint Peter\u2019s centre, knowing that Elias there or Father Walid, the parish priest of Saint Peter\u2019s Church, will always respond to our requests\u201d, Toni tells us. The presence of the Church and its work on behalf of the displaced by the war and the local poor is quite literally saving many lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need sends around 50,000 Euros each month to the Saint Peter\u2019s Aid Centre in Marmarita, a large part of which is to cover the cost of essential medicines and the medical care of over 4,000 individuals. \u201cWe continue to need your aid. You are the hope of all these people, and a wonderful example for our society\u201d, says Dr Abboud, as he bids us farewell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Josue Villalon &#8211; ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYRIA The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the Christians &nbsp; Mzeina Hospital is situated in the small town of the same name, one of several that make up the Valley of the Christians (Wadi Al-Nasara in Arabic), a rural region of Syria, close to the frontier with Lebanon and roughly halfway between the city&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SYRIA: The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the Christians - Josue Villalon - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/06\/19\/syria-the-good-samaritans-of-the-valley-of-the-christians-josue-villalon-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SYRIA: The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the Christians - Josue Villalon - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SYRIA The Good Samaritans of the Valley of the Christians &nbsp; 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