\u201cOur project partners sometimes feel discouraged and tired, but fortunately, they have not lost hope,\u201d says Marie-Claude Lalonde, national director of ACN Canada. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey are able to keep this hope because they know we are with them, that our benefactors are answering the call, and that we will do everything in our power to help them stay in their countries and live there in decent conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Aid to the Church in Need\u2019s 2022 Christmas campaign focuses on Christian communities in two devastated Middle Eastern countries: Syria and Lebanon. \u201cWe have produced a series of videos that show just how tragic the situation is for families and their children. Despite this, they are aware of all the support we have already given them. In the end, they all say a big thank you to ACN benefactors who, since 2011 in Syria and since 2019 especially in Lebanon, have supported them. A warm Shukran!<\/em> to our benefactors in advance on their behalf,\u201d says Ms. Lalonde. <\/p>\n\n In both countries, the support consists of housing assistance, the distribution of basic supplies, including food, the purchase of medicine, and pastoral assistance through the organization of youth camps, amongst others. \u201cIn Syria, we also support young scouts by providing them with a uniform. Being part of a group in which the values of respect, mutual aid and fraternity are encouraged is one of the only ways to keep young people off the streets, where an entire generation is at risk of learning and perpetuating violence,\u201d Lalonde insists. \u201cOur support allows Christians to stay on their ancestral land. Few people realize that Syria and Lebanon are the historic homes of the first Christian communities,\u201d she stresses. \u201cSupporting the schools there, the young couples who want to start a family, or the nuns who run schools with very little means is not only allowing these communities to remain in their homeland, but it is also ensuring diversity in the Middle East\u2014a land where Christian communities have often played important mediating roles in the midst of conflict,\u201d says Lalonde. <\/p>\n\n