Thanks to your wonderful and generous compassion, more than 330 projects across 76 countries were paid out in 2021 by the UK office of Aid to the Church in Need – one of the best years on record and achieved in spite of the COVID pandemic.

Projects supported by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) included urgent medical support for Syrian Christian refugee families in Lebanon, subsistence aid for priests, Sisters and catechists ministering in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, and a Church-backed campaign providing emergency COVID-19 help for the poor in Delhi’s slums.

Neville Kyrke-Smith, national director ACN (UK), said: “Given the immense challenges our brothers and sisters faced in so many countries last year, I am once again humbled by our benefactors’ love in response to their suffering.

Mr Kyrke-Smith stressed that ACN (UK) had not forgotten long-term priorities, and was still helping Christians in the Middle East suffering from regional conflicts and targeted attacks from extremist groups.

Syrian refugees who fled to Zahlé, east Lebanon, received ongoing support including food packages, hygiene kits, rent assistance, fuel, and medical needs.

The UN does not provide these Christian families with any assistance – all international aid is channelled via the Muslim-majority unofficial camps where Christians are afraid to live.

Other support provided by the UK office during 2021 included support for seminarians – particularly in Africa, Eastern Europe and the subcontinent, reconstruction of churches across the globe, such as St Joseph’s, Kragujevac, Serbia, and rent support for struggling families including in the Syrian capital Damascus, as well as Mass stipends to support poor priests.

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