ACN Pledges €5 Million for Syria and Lebanon

The situation for Christians in both Syria and Lebanon is dire. For this reason ACN has pledged a new €5 million package to help the Church in Syria and Lebanon.

By ACN Staff

Religious sisters praying with children in Damascus, Syria. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has announced a new €5 million relief package for Syria and Lebanon. The situation for Christians in both countries is dire.

ACN sponsored food distribution in Beirut, Lebanon. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

In Syria, fighting has ceased in most of the country, but much of the country has been left in ruins after the ten-year civil war. Even more pressing of an issue is the shortage of basic necessities such as food, which has been in part been caused by international sanctions against Syria. In Lebanon, the country is going through a political and economic crisis. Inflation and the devaluation of the Lebanese currency has driven much of the population into poverty, at a time when Lebanon is also trying to cope with a large number of refugees from Syria.

Christians have begun to leave Lebanon in large numbers. This is a worrying development, as Lebanon is the only country in the region with a large proportion of Christians in the population. It is feared if Christians leave Lebanon, Christians in the rest of the Middle East might have to follow suit. ACN recently spoke with Patriarch Jospeh Younan III of the Syriac Catholic Church. The patriarch said the following about developments in Lebanon:

“We are very, very scared that if this crisis continues it will be the end of Christians in Lebanon and the whole of the near East in a few years. Normally when Christians leave, as happened in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, they don’t return.”

ACN sponsored scholarship programme run by the Greek Orthodox Church in Homs, Syria. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

ACN hopes that the new funding will help Christians to stay in the Middle East. In Syria, much of ACN’s recent funding has been focused on providing basic material support to Christians, such as subsistence aid, support with rents and education fees, etc. After a recent visit to Syria by ACN’s Head of Projects Regina Lynch it was decided that ACN would start a new project to help young newly married Christian couples in Syria. Regina explained the difficulties facing young people in Syria and why many have been unable to get married:

“Many young people don’t get married because they can’t afford to set up home together. It is a situation that also worries the bishops, recognizing that the faithful do not marry because they simply cannot afford it. We are working on a project in Aleppo, which will consist of giving couples enough money to cover basic needs for setting up home or to pay the rent of a flat for two years.”

In Lebanon, ACN has included in its new projects food packages to be distributed by the local Church to the most in need and also Mass stipends for priests. Around €1.5 million of the €5 million package is going towards construction and reconstruction projects. Much of Syria is in ruins after the civil war and the Christian quarter of Beirut in Lebanon was devastated by August 2020 Beirut explosion. Around €1.1 million has been set aside for educational and catechetical projects with children and young adults.

Please join us in prayer for Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East. If would like to offer financial help to ACN’s projects, please consider making a donation.