IRAQ: Sisters bring refugees hope at Christmas
By John Pontifex
A Chaldean Sister oversees the collection of food parcels for refugees in Zakho, Iraq
Religious Sisters will be giving out Christmas food parcels to poverty-stricken people in northern Iraq – with a little bit of help from Aid to the Church in Need.
The community of Chaldean Sisters are about to set out with their van packed full of cheese, tinned meat, powdered milk, cooking oil, salt, sugar, soap and other urgent items as part of their outreach in and around Zakho, close to the border with Syria and Turkey.
The Christmas mercy mission is possible thanks to £22,500 from Aid to the Church in Need.
The aid package – the third of its lind since the initiative began last Christmas – is being sent out this week. It comes amid continuing reports of immense hardship and poverty in the Kurdish north of Iraq, where people are struggling despite government assistance.
Fresh back from a trip to the region, Aid to the Church in Need’s Iraq projects coordinator Marie-Ange Siebrecht has seen for herself the impact of the aid. She said: “It was clear from the people we met that the Sisters are very much appreciated for their work.
“What they are doing will give many people a real boost this Christmas and remind them that they are not alone – that their brothers and sisters in faith elsewhere are thinking about them and trying to help.”
Thousands are expected to benefit from the food parcels, with priority given to the elderly, the disabled and others with special needs.
The aid is part of Aid to the Church in Need’s ongoing commitment to a Christian community in a region where an exodus has led to the Church in Iraq plummeting from about one million in 2003 to less than 350,000 today.
In the spring, the charity gave £18,000 to Iraqi Christians in Syria desperate for help and living in very basic accommodation, mostly in and around the capital Damascus.
Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo in Syria, who is coordinating Aid to the Church in Need’s relief work in the region, has repeatedly stressed the importance of providing whatever help is possible.
Aid to the Church in Need has also supported Iraqi Christian refugees in Jordan and Turkey.
On a visit to Istanbul last month, Neville Kyrke-Smith, ther charity’s UK National Director, met Monsignor Francois Yakan, Patriarchal Vicar for the Assyrians and Chaldeans of Turkey, who heads up an organisation supporting Iraqi Christian refugees.
Monsignor Yakan told Mr Kyrke-Smith: “We are offering the hope of Christ – and, thanks to Aid to the Church in Need – the love of Christ in practical help.
“Your help – through faith and solidarity – means so much to us. Prayer unites us with you every day.”