Source: The National Herald By TNH Staff BALTIMORE, MD – From October 2017 through February 2018, IOCC supporters gave more than $1.2 million under the Jaharis Family Foundation Inc.’s $1 million matching challenge to help people in need in Greece, IOCC announced on May 1. In October 2017, IOCC announced the foundation’s challenge, issued to help support emergency and development projects in Greece. The Jaharis Family Foundation Inc. offered to match donations to IOCC’s Give for Greece program, dollar for dollar, up to $1 million. IOCC issued a call for donations, and supporters across the country and the world responded.…
Browsing: IOCC
Source: Hellenic News of America July 8, 2016 (Baltimore, MD) — As torrential rain pummeled parts of West Virginia and threatened a new round of flooding, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) remains on the ground providing emotional and spiritual care and deploying IOCC volunteer clean-up crews to the hard hit towns of Clendenin and Rainelle. His Grace Bishop Thomas of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic visited the affected area to offer encouragement to parishioners impacted by the floods and called upon the Orthodox faithful to extend a helping hand to their neighbors in need…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities International Orthodox Christian Charities Response to the Crisis in Syria International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) supports one of the largest established networks to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid inside Syria where more than 12.2 million people are currently in need of assistance, 7.6 million of which are internally displaced. In addition to its work inside Syria, IOCC staff is working regionally to address the growing needs of more than 4 million refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Armenia, Greece, and Serbia, as well as people in need in those host countries. Responding to one of the worst…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to the urgent needs of the Ukraine conflict’s most vulnerable victims with emergency food assistance for 900 children under age three living in areas directly affected by the violence in Eastern Ukraine. Nearly two years of armed conflict has driven 1.5 million Ukrainian people from their homes. UNICEF estimates that nearly 180,000 of those displaced are children. Among the most severely impacted are infants and toddlers, as well as mothers with special needs children. As Ukraine’s brief autumn turns into winter, the living…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — More than 50 Orthodox Christian high school students representing over 30 different dioceses under the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States of America gathered this summer in Minneapolis and Chicago for two Serv-X-Treme! conferences. Participants strengthened their understanding of Christ-centered service and Orthodox Christian philanthropy through theoretical and hands-on service activities at the week-long gatherings. “Being given the opportunity to practice my faith in so many different environments was truly a blessing,” said participant Dimitri Godur of Miami, Florida. “Our projects and discussions truly gave me a different…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Last week’s attacks on Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp just outside of Damascus, Syria, has left nearly 20,000 of its residents trapped with little access to food, water, electricity or outside aid. The UN has described the conditions there as “beyond inhumane” and is calling for full protection of civilians and humanitarian access. International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) with its church partner in Syria, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, is assessing the urgent needs of displaced families that managed to escape, and is prepared to provide…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Thousands of South Sudanese families who fled the violence and bloodshed from their country’s civil war now face new hardships as refugees in Ethiopia. More than 196,000 refugees, of which nearly two-thirds are children, have endured months of living out in open fields with little shelter from the searing sun, torrential rains, and floods that washed away the few possessions they managed to cling to in flight. Stagnant water and poor sanitation created a breeding ground for cholera and other infectious diseases, and threaten the health of children already weakened by…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Fleeing for their lives, more than 2,400 exhausted and traumatized Christians from northeastern Syria sought refuge in the towns of Hasakah and Qamishli after their small communities were terrorized this week. The attackers targeted a stretch of villages along the southern bank of the Khabour River, where they burned homes and churches, murdered a fleeing 16-year-old boy, and abducted 150 Assyrian Christian men, women and children from their homes. For those who managed to escape the attack and seek shelter in Hasakah, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), with its church partner,…
Source: IOCC Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — From comforting survivors of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, to helping Midwest families clean out their homes after last summer’s devastating floods, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has been responding to the needs of disaster victims across the US for more than a decade through the IOCC Emergency Response Network, or Frontline, as well as the support of local Orthodox Christian parishes in outreach to disaster-affected communities. IOCC’s track record of readiness in times of disasters and emergencies has earned it a position as the newest member of the nation’s largest network of disaster…
Source: Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America To the Most Reverend Clergy, Venerable Monastics and Devout Faithful of the Holy Orthodox Churches in the Americas: Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, During this holiday season, many of us are turning our thoughts to welcoming beloved family and friends into our homes, to share with them the best that we have to offer, and to share our gratitude for the many blessings our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us. As we prepare to open our homes to guests who are dear to us, please consider welcoming one more guest into…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — From the smallest rural towns to the biggest cities, two-thirds of America’s children living in poverty have no books at home, according to the nation’s largest literacy program, Reading is Fundamental. Children with no regular access to books and reading are at greatest risk for struggling in school and in adulthood. Unfortunately, books are often inaccessible for children whose families are trying to makes ends meet and the cycle of poverty and low educational achievement are reinforced. International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is working to promote literacy and learning for…
Source: International Orthodox Christian Charities Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — When record rainfall drenched the Midwest in July and triggered massive flooding of communities across Minnesota and Iowa, teen volunteers from St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis were among the dozen members of an International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Orthodox Action Team who traveled to the hard-hit Iowa town of Rock Rapids to help an elderly flood survivor clear away waterlogged debris from his home. Orthodox Christian youth across the U.S. also have a history of eagerly volunteering their time and energy to assist IOCC in helping families rebuild and…