His Holiness Pope Francis receives the Syrian Arab Red Crescent President, Eng. Khaled Hboubati, Today, 28 January, 2023.
During the meeting, Eng. Khaled Hboubati thanked Pope Francis for the opportunity to this meeting, where he gave a briefing on the latest developments of the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis that left millions of people in dire needs, explaining that the needs are increasingly growing, due to the debilitating economic sanctions, which overburden the people and make ensuring dignified life elusive, especially in this harsh cold winter.
Eng. Khaled Hboubati expressed his pride of the Eastern Christians as part of the Syrian society fabric, which is known of its interconnected multi-ethnicity despite the protracted crisis. He confirmed that Syria was and still is the cradle of civilization and authenticity and fraternity, and for that, the Syrian crisis is a wound of humanity.
He stressed that today, despite all the challenges, the #Syrian_Arab_Red_Crescent still ranks first among the national societies in the world in terms of the difficulty of the implemented humanitarian response, which was incurred by the loss of 65 of its volunteers, who will always illuminate the path of humanity for us to achieve our objectives: Alleviating humanitarian suffering all over the country.
Eng. Khaled Hboubati presented a token gift, an icon from Aleppo, to His Holiness the Pope, who in turn presented a valuable set of medals, and expressed his appreciation to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Organization, which has been working for humanity for 81 years now. The Pope praised the dedication and the efforts of the volunteers in responding under difficult circumstances, expressing his regret for the loss of humanitarian workers who lost their lives in line of humanitarian duty. He confirmed that he always prays for the peace to prevail again all over Syria, the country that he would like to revisit.
It is worth mentioning that during the same visit to Rome, Eng. Khaled Hboubati met President of the IFRC, Mr. Francesco Rocca, and some people of concern in humanitarian action field
