Emergency Committee in Qamishli to help low-income families and elderly Armenians

Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Reem Chamoun – Charbel Hanou

The Emergency Committee that is dedicated to the novel coronavirus crisis in northeastern Syria's Qamishli provides the basic needs of food and milk for children and also provides medicine and medical consultation free of charge to low-income families and the elderly of the Armenian Orthodox community during the lockdown.

The Local Council, composed of local figures who run the community and which belongs to the Armenian Orthodox Church, formed an emergency committee for the coronavirus crisis, to support the elderly and families who could not provide their needs in the city, under the auspices of the Archbishop of the Armenian community in al-Jazira region, with the start of the lockdown 15 days ago.

The Head of the committee, Antranik Sarkissian, told North-Press on Monday that the committee is providing basic necessities for needy families and the elderly during the current circumstances and in light of the crisis that the world is going through to face the coronavirus epidemic, especially since there are many families who cannot secure their food, bread and medicine.

The committee works to secure meals on a daily basis in cooperation with the Women's Committee of the Armenian Orthodox Church, where women cook and distribute food with bread by volunteers to low-income families and the elderly, according to Sarkissian.

The committee also includes a group of Armenian doctors from the city of Qamishli who visit the elderly and patients who do not have a breadwinner in order to provide free fares medical examination, in addition to providing necessary medicine to them periodically, according to the head of the committee.

Sarkissian said that the committee's work continues until the end of the coronavirus crisis, which also includes securing children's needs for milk and medicines, "to alleviate the burden on parents so that they do not go out to secure needs, and in order to keep their children safe from the epidemic," he said.

The Armenian Orthodox Bishop of al-Jazira region, Levon Yeghiyan, told North-Press that there are young Armenian volunteers in the committee who are on a 24-hour shift in a center of the Armenian Church to receive any emergency case from the residents and to get doctors to them.

"Their mission is to deliver any item needed by the elderly who cannot get out of the house," he said.

The Armenian Church is working to equip an intensive care unit to receive patients in case their situation worsens, especially elderly Armenians who do not have a breadwinner, Levon Yeghiyan said.