NEW YORK (Press Release) – As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Dr. Georgette Bennett was deeply moved by the Syrian refugee crisis. Having arrived in the United States as a refugee herself, escaping from Hungary to France, she refused to sit idly by. Fueled by her own personal experiences, in 2013, Bennett founded the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA) – a project of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in cooperation with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).
MFA is the nation’s leading interfaith response to the worst humanitarian tragedy since World War II. Its list of participating organizations includes Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and other major faith-based organizations. MFA’s mission is to mobilize global multifaith support to alleviate the Syrian humanitarian crisis, heighten awareness of the growing dangers of complacency, and advance future stability in the region.
“There has never been a more crucial time to dispel the myths pertaining to the Muslim faith and about Syrians fleeing their war-torn country as their only means of survival,” Bennett said. “MFA has united almost 70 mostly faith-based organizations, and together, we hope to alleviate terrible suffering among Syrian war victims and, in the process, to advance religious co-existence.”
Most recently, Bennett, along with MFA’s partnering organizations, has helped raise funds for an initiative made possible by Heart to Heart International (HHI) – a Kansas-based nonprofit organization. HHI was given the opportunity to purchase 150 tents valued at more than $60,000 for the deeply discounted price of $12,500. The tents will be distributed to families in Syria whose tents are badly worn after three years of use, and to newly-displaced Syrian war victims. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 24 people are fleeing from their homes every minute.
JDC in cooperation with MFA has already secured the $12,500 needed to purchase these tents through a generous grant by the Leichtag Foundation. This drive is the latest in a three-year alliance with JDC that has helped to raise nearly $2 million for humanitarian assistance.
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Preceding provided by the Multifaith Alliance: www.multifaithalliance.org.