Iraq: It’s now or never!

Iraq: It’s now or never!

© Jaco Klamer/ACN

Please help Iraqi Christians urgently wanting to go back to their homelands

Searching for hope: A little girl at a displacement camp outside Mosul, northern Iraq

FOR displaced Iraqi Christians forced from their homes and living in displacement camps, the moment they have been longing for has finally come.

After nearly three years, Islamist terror group Daesh (ISIS) has been driven out of the area.

Now, thousands upon thousands of people have the chance to go back to the Nineveh Plains – their families’ homeland since before the time of Christ.

But the task of repair and renovation is huge and Aid to the Church in Need – the largest contributor of emergency help since their escape from Nineveh – is determined to continue to stand with them.

It is now or never!

With your help, we can fulfil two key objectives.

The first is to roll out plans to restore thousands of homes devastated by

Daesh, a vital step to enable the families like to express my heartfelt thanks to the to go back. benefactors of ACN – your presence is The other is to continue providing always felt among us. emergency aid – food, shelter, medicine “With your help, we will be able to and schooling – for those awaiting rebuild our houses. It is a great mercy resettlement. to know that we can count on your Displaced communities in Erbil and support.” elsewhere in Kurdish northern Iraq have been totally dependent on you, their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Bishops and faithful alike are encouraged by the recent successes against Daesh in Mosul.

Thanking Aid to the Church in Need, Syriac Catholic Archbishop Petros Mouche of Mosul, whose flock make up 60 rtfelt thanks e in northern Iraq: “My hea Archbishop Petros Mouch percent of the displaced ” to the benefactors of ACN community, said: “I would

Helping the suffering Church today Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church and registered in Malta as a Foundation regulated by the www.acnmalta.org second schedule of the Civil Code Chapter (16) of the Laws of Malta.

Syria: Offering help and hope

After the bombs have ceased: An elderly woman picks her way through the remains of Al-Midan district, eastern Aleppo

“I thank Jesus for you, the friends of Aid to the Church in Need.

You are bringing hope to us all in Syria.”

Sr Annie Demerjia The words of Syria’s n Sister Annie Demerjian.

With your help, Sister Annie and her volunteers in the cities of Aleppo and Hassake are continuing to provide emergency food, shelter and medicine for 2,200 Christian families – the poor, the disabled and the elderly – men, women and children who have been living through the horrors of war.

Sister’s programme is one of more than 30 projects paid out by ACN over the past few months – and it comes amid amazing reports that Christians and others are now beginning to return to Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.

Other ACN projects in Aleppo include repairs to the bomb-damaged Al-Yarmouk Youth Sports Centre in Azizieh a mainly Christian district.

The centre’s coordinator, Kevork Mavian, said: “To be able to continue with these sports activities in complete security is a source of joy and new hope for us all and an encouragement in our faith.”

In another part of Azizieh, ACN is helping with the basic running costs of Our Lady’s

Secondary School and the Lord’s Care Orphanage.

The school was bombed three times but now the fighting has stopped 200 girls are back at their desks.

Sister Yvone Yousef Bahdi, who helps run the school, said: “We had difficulties lighting the children’s classrooms.

“We are continuing the educational process in order to nurture a generation which believes in Christian morality and good citizenship.

“Thank you for your care and all thanks to your noble benefactors.”

Nurturing faith: A summer catechetical camp in Aleppo, Syria - supported by you.

Reports by John Pontifex. All photographs by Aid to the Church in Need except where noted. © Aid to the Church in Need (August 2017)

Aid to the Church in Need (Malta), 39b, Mdina Road, Attard, ATD 9038 21487818

info@acnmalta.org

Other vital help that you are helping ACN to fund includes: • Food and medicine for 75 widows and war wounded in Aleppo • Summer catechetical camp for youngsters in Aleppo led by Fr George Sabounji • Shelter for 340 families in towns and villages in southern Syria • Education for 250 students in different parts of the country

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www.acnmalta.org/syriaandiraq @acn_malta

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