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191 updates found
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Lebanon + 1 other
Born Into Uncertainty, Syria's Youngest Refugees Struggle To Survive

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Samira, 32, was eight months pregnant when she was forced to flee her home in Syria with her six small children. After a grueling 12-hour journey, Samira and her children arrived at a settlement in western Lebanon's Bekaa Valley with nothing other than her identity papers. They now live in a crudely constructed tent of wood and billboard vinyl, with a small diesel heater that does little to keep out the cold and damp. "I am not comfortable here," Samira says. "The situation is very bad for my children.

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Lebanon + 1 other
Plight Of Syrian Refugee Mothers Focus Of IOCC Aid

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — When Khawlah fled her home in Syria with a two-week-old son in her arms and his three siblings gathered around her, she was instructed to pack only what her family needed in order to survive. Any precious space in the car transporting them was needed to fit them all in. Thinking only of her children, the young mother jam-packed her children's most basic necessities into one small bag. Khawlah's husband handed her all the money they had to pay for the journey and said their goodbyes.

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IOCC Delivers Winter Relief To Syria's Displaced Families

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — The conflict that rages on in Syria has severely crippled the country's power plants as well as damaged major roads needed to transport heating fuel during the coldest time of year, while violence, sanctions and instability in the region have led to critical fuel shortages. As thousands of displaced families and elderly throughout Syria struggle to stay warm on nights that dip below freezing, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding with winter relief to more than 30,000 Syrian families.

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Jordan + 2 others
Anguished and isolated, Syrian refugee children bear scars of conflict

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Sana was only three weeks away from graduation when a mortar hit her family's home in Homs, Syria. She fled quickly into the night towards Jordan with her mother and four siblings, carrying only a small bag filled with water bottles, bread and homemade jam. Now a refugee, the tears come easily when the girl thinks about the home they had to leave and the schooling she was forced to sacrifice.

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IOCC Responds To Humanitarian Needs Of Gaza Families

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — The rising hostilities between Israel and Gaza has claimed at least 100 lives – more than half of them Palestinian civilians – and left 600 more injured in Gaza. While the world watches to see whether the tension continues to escalate, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is on the ground in Gaza, assessing the most urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian families caught in the conflict.

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IOCC Expands Relief Efforts in Syria

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Her days as a kindergarten teacher in Sabil, Syria, are a distant memory for Katia, 20. Eight months ago, she and her family fled their home to escape fighting in the neighborhood and have been displaced ever since. Left with no job and nothing to do, Katia turned to a local church for guidance and is now helping assist other Syrians who were driven from their homes by the conflict that has engulfed Syria.

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IOCC Helps Ease Trauma Of Displaced Syrian Families

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Sabah, a mother of eight, was home alone with her youngest child when a fiery skirmish struck near her doorstep in Damascus. The two fled to a nearby school to seek shelter. As the fighting spread, Sabah and her young son moved onto a second and then third shelter, seeking safer living arrangements. While Sabah hopes that her seven older children are with their father, she has had no contact with any of them, nor received any news of their whereabouts.

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Jordan + 1 other
IOCC Aid Reaches Syria's Youngest Refugees

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Hiba, 5, clings fearfully to her mother's dress round the clock and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. Ever since Sami, 4, and his brother Rana, 2, fled Homs with their mother, loud sounds elicit screams and send them diving for cover under tables and beds.

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Haiti + 1 other
Homeless struggle to recover from Isaac

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Tropical storm Isaac's unleashing of wind and water on Haiti last Saturday left more than two dozen people dead, washed away precious food crops, and destroyed the tents that still house hundreds of thousands of survivors of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. The tropical storm tore through tents and makeshift homes offering no protection from torrential downpour and the renewed threat of highly-contagious waterborne diseases like cholera.

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Humanitarian Need Grows For Syrian Families Caught In New Surge Of Violence

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Syrians who received more than a million refugees fleeing from conflict in Iraq now face the same fate as more than one and a half million Syrians seek refuge from the spreading violence in their own country. International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has redoubled its efforts to provide food and essential items – blankets, stoves and hygiene supplies – to the rapidly growing number of displaced and vulnerable Syrian families.

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International Pressure Mounts Over Gaza Blockade

Gaza 14 June 2012: Fifty international charities and United Nations Agencies have unanimously called for the lifting of the blockade of Gaza. The organizations have published a simple three line statement to mark the fifth anniversary of the tightening of the blockade of the Strip.

It reads:

For over five years in Gaza, more than 1.6 million people have been under blockade in violation of international law. More than half of these people are children. We the undersigned say with one voice: “end the blockade now.”

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IOCC responds to urgent needs of Syrian families

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — As the conflict in Syria continues to escalate, disrupting the lives of more than one million Syrians, displacing 56,000 people from their homes according to UN estimates, and leaving thousands of families without access to food and urgently needed medical care, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is intensifying its current response efforts to meet the surging humanitarian needs for emergency medical aid, food and basic necessities for Syrian families displaced in their own country.

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IOCC To Help Ease Plight Of Displaced Syrian Families

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is taking steps to assist the growing number of Syrian families displaced throughout their country and a rising number of Syrian refugees who are arriving to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

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School Remains a Sanctuary for Haiti's Most Vulnerable Children Two Years After Earthquake

They call it the House of Love, one of only five such special needs schools in the entire country of Haiti. Two years ago, students like these two young girls faced an uncertain future when their school, Foyer d'Amour, was severely damaged during a devastating earthquake that leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The school staff, determined that these children's education continue, built a temporary facility across the street.

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Ethiopia + 1 other
IOCC opening doors to education for children of the famine

As the young refugee children of Somalia's famine begin to regain their strength under the watchful care of international relief organizations, many are heading back to class in one of the several elementary schools existing in the refugee camp of Bokolomanyo and other nearby camps in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia. For their older brothers and sisters, the nearest high school is more than 60 miles away leaving displaced refugee families desperate to find an accessible and safe place for their adolescent sons and daughters to complete their education.

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Serbia + 2 others
IOCC sends new wave of relief to Serbia's earthquake survivors

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — The past year has been a struggle for the villagers living in and around Vitanovac, Serbia, the epicenter of a jarring 5.4 earthquake last November that left two people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. With winter coming and the need for assistance still critical, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) through ongoing support from the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand, is delivering much needed relief to families still laboring to rebuild their homes and replace belongings destroyed in the earthquake.

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Breaking the Cycle of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

As church liturgy concludes at St. Mikael's Church in Assela, Ethiopia, loudspeakers announce the availability of free HIV testing for couples and pregnant women. Mesay, a 30-year-old expectant mother dressed in her Sunday best, steps over to the nearby tent to be tested for the HIV virus for the first time. Older women volunteers, trusted members of the community, mill about the crowd and encourage other mothers and couples to get tested for the well-being of their family's future.

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Delivering Winter Relief To Isolated Gaza Families

Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Worry has become a daily companion for Hatem, a father of five. He has been without a job since the closing of the Gaza Strip. What income Hatem has managed to earn through odd jobs over the last ten years has rarely been enough to feed, clothe and shelter his family. Hatem's family lives in the Rafah governorate of Gaza under the most dire conditions, relying on scraps of sheet metal, plastic and fencing to shield his wife and children from the elements in their haphazardly constructed home.