The current political, economic and social crises have hugely endangered the Christian presence in Lebanon and is provoking a profound emigration out of the country.
Will you choose to give the gift of new clothes to these children this Christmas?
Our brothers and sisters in Lebanon need us!
Let’s give them a lasting Christmas gift:
Making Baby Jesus Smile
If a teacher’s salary was $2,110 before the crisis, now, it is only $124. Those who can, emigrate.
This Christmas, 15,000 children in need will welcome a new pair of pants and a shirt which will be given to them by their parish, during a small celebration.
With just $21, you can put a gift under the Christmas Tree for a Lebanese child and make Baby Jesus smile.
Sectarian divisions in a context of social unrest have started to appear, and inter-communal relations between refugees from Syria and local Lebanese communities are deteriorating.
Between 2017 and 2020, the percentage of negative relationships doubled from 21% to 43%, mainly after the Beirut port explosions; negative relations jumped from 32% to 43%, with a clear impact from COVID-19 and tensions provoked by the reduction of job opportunities. More recently, the media described a dispute over the scarcity of fuel supplies between neighbouring Shi’ite Muslim and Christian villages in southern Lebanon, forcing the army to intervene.
On July 1st Pope Francis held a summit in Rome where Lebanon’s Christian leaders, including Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, prayed for solutions to the country’s deepening crisis.
Total population: 6,019,795
Territory: 10,452 km2
Religion: Muslim 60% Christian 35.1%
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): 7,000
Refugees registered in the country: 865,300 Syrian refugees, 10,286 asylum seekers and 7,149 people of concern; in total, approximately 1.5 million Syrians live in Lebanon.