» Our help aims to prevent the Christian presence in the Middle East from being wiped out. «
The situation of Christians in the Middle East continued to deteriorate in 2017 as a result of violence, oppression and displacement. Civil war has been raging in Syria for seven years now and Iraq faces the ruins caused by IS terror in many places. The entire region is marked by hundreds of thousands of victims of war and terror, millions of refugees, political instability and a largely destroyed infrastructure. ACN is working hard to give Christians renewed hope for a future in an area that is a flash point for misery and violence.
» The rebuilding of churches is a sign of hope and the return of normality for Christians. «
Christians are as much affected by the war and terror as Muslims and other denominations are. In Iraq and Syria, many Christian communities have been completely destroyed. Thousands of faithful have lost their lives or fled. The Church infrastructure has also not been spared. In Syria alone, ecclesiastical buildings in more than 200 parishes have been damaged or destroyed.
We see our aid in the Middle East not only as a response to the dramatic humanitarian situation caused by the war in Syria and the invasion of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq. Rather, our aim is to stop the massive exodus of Christians from the region to prevent Christian ethnic groups in the Middle East – once the cradle of Christianity – from being wiped out or completely dispersed.
