Supporting Christians to remain in Lebanon

Marielle, Charlotte and Fouad make up Aid to the Church in Need’s team in Lebanon. They travel across the country to meet bishops and study the projects being developed by the dioceses. The economic crisis that hit Lebanon hard in 2019 wiped out the savings of families and Church institutions alike. Yet each month, schools, parishes and dioceses manage — almost providentially — to pay their staff.

“The goal is to support families,” explains Father Raymond Abdo, who oversees several schools and a retreat center in Qobayet, near the Syrian border in the far north of Lebanon. The Carmelite priest, formerly provincial in Beirut, is able to keep the schools open thanks to the generosity of the faithful and the support of charitable organizations from Germany, Austria, Poland and France.

ACN, headquartered in Frankfurt, collects donations from 140 countries and allocates them to projects around the world. Lebanon is among its priorities due to the precarious situation of Christian schools and the need to slow — since stopping it appears impossible — the exodus of Christians from the country. Many are driven away by collapsing living conditions, political instability, intercommunal tensions, and the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

In Douris, in the heart of the Bekaa, at least 186 explosions were recorded between September and November 2024. One shell struck a garage used as a Hezbollah weapons storage site, causing serious damage to surrounding homes. Abdo, a retired soldier and father of two young girls, was thrown across his house by the blast. The garage was right across the street. He found one of his daughters under the rubble, curled up, covered in dust, terrified and badly injured. She spent five days in intensive care. ACN covered the hospital costs. The child is physically healed, but the psychological trauma runs deep. The events of 25 September 2024 are “unforgettable,” says Abdo. His house had just been renovated; he must now rebuild again, going further into debt.

Across from the destroyed garage, Joseph, a retired police officer, was not physically harmed but his home was also damaged. Both men insist they did not know it was a weapons cache. They knew Hezbollah used the building, but were told no weapons were stored there. They only ever saw trucks driving in and out.