Lebanon: Charity set to increase emergency aid as rockets continue to fall

Aftermath of a missile attack in southern Lebanon, June 2024 © ACN

Source: ACN

International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need is stepping up its support for Christians in Lebanon in response to the deepening crisis, offering food, medicine, help with education, pastoral programmes and other desperately needed assistance.

The exchange of daily rocket fire on the Israel-Lebanon border since last October has caused almost everyone in southern Lebanon's Christian villages to flee their homes - and the conflict has since spread to other parts of the country as well.

Marielle Boutros, ACN project coordinator in Lebanon, said the charity has been funding around 200 projects in the country and is in close contact with a number of dioceses and religious congregations to assess what more help is needed.

In the past months, ACN aid has included food parcels for thousands of families and medical help for 1,200 people who have stayed in southern Lebanon despite the dangers.

Ms Boutros said that the charity is set to confirm additional support for the Church in Lebanon in the coming days and weeks.

She added: "We expect to receive projects from the Maronite Dioceses of Saida, Baalbek and Tyre, and the Melkite Diocese of Tyre. We might also receive projects from other dioceses."

She explained that the charity is also expecting requests from various religious congregations reaching out to families in most need.

Maronite Bishop Maroun Ammar of Sidon told ACN that the charity's help "has been received by the beneficiaries with the greatest joy and has restored faith in their hearts, which had been crushed by poverty and instability for so many years.

"They have felt once again that their Mother Church is always close to them and cares for the weakest and poorest among them."

Bishop Ammar added: "People have expressed enormous gratitude to their Church, and we have been able to restore some of their hope that tomorrow will be better and that they are not alone or abandoned by everyone."

ACN has started accepting donations for more emergency projects in Lebanon in response to the worsening armed conflict and the resulting mass displacement.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has identified more than 340,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) living in around 800 shelters throughout the country, as of Monday, 30th September.

LINK

Aid to the Church in Need: www.acnuk.org