Ever since Syrian rebel groups captured the city of Aleppo on November 30th, 2024, Christians and other religious minorities have once again found themselves faced with horrific circumstances. Forced to flee with only the clothes on their backs, families left behind homes, belongings, and the semblance of the life they’d built since the last insurgence.
In the words of one Muslim background believer, “We have been displaced over and over again, always finding ourselves alone with no help. This time was even worse, especially after losing everything for the second time.
Syria’s recent governmental transition has left an already marginalized community exposed at a heightened rate – Muslim background believers (MBB’s) are facing more social exclusion, economic hardship, and discrimination than ever. And while the political and economic upheaval has caused shortages of basic necessities for all Syrians, MBB families are even more vulnerable because of social isolation and exclusion from support networks due to their faith.
But the Shai Fund and Derech Avraham heard their cry for help and responded.
Working together with local pastors in the Aleppo area over the month of January, the Shai Fund was able to identify 120 MBB families in need (527 men, women, and children), and offer a helping hand by providing them with food and hygiene vouchers. Not only did this action affirm their inclusion into the body of Christ, but it sent a powerful message – that they are not forgotten.
We, their brothers and sisters from across the nations, are standing with them in their time of need. The original goal of this project was to immediately alleviate their suffering, but these food and hygiene vouchers, which they could redeem at their local supermarket, for any food or hygiene products of their choosing (alcohol and tobacco excluded), also offered them a sense of dignity.
To quote one voucher recipient, “[The Shai Fund] responded quickly, and for the first time, we felt surrounded by family.”
Another beneficiary explained, “Many families from [redacted] have been displaced to the camps, and now, after being displaced for a second time, we are in desperate need of assistance. We have lost everything—our possessions, our personal belongings. But this program was a lifeline for us, especially since we have no financial means to secure even the most basic food supplies.”
RESTORING HOPE: WATER PROJECT IN AANES REGION OF SYRIA
What exactly is the AANES (Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria)? Charmaine Hedding, the founder of Shai Fund, a non-profit organization active in the region for over 20 years, describes the geographical area known as Rojava or AANES, as “the one part of Syria that is democratic and has values like we have: freedom of religion and belief, inclusion for women, participation of all religious minorities, according to their 2012 social contract. It’s from there that the US bases have been able to form the coalition forces. They joined up with Eastern Syria to fight ISIS.”
“These are people we should be actively supporting.”
In fact, this corridor of North East Syria has often been referred to as a “buffer-zone”, a neutral and democratic region that has made a collective choice to coexist peacefully in contrast to the civil war that rages just to the south.
There are many evangelical churches inside the AANES or Rojava region that were supported by believers in Turkey and others in the Middle East. “They have freedom of religion and Muslim converts are able to openly worship Christ there,” said Charmaine.
It’s a region that is critical but vulnerable, and at this moment, at risk – the dams that provide water to the AANES have recently come under attack, only adding to the water crisis existing since 2019. In fact, the Tishreen Dam made headlines on January 11th of this year as Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army militants intensified their attacks, their effort to destroy the dam, the end-goal to essentially cut off the AANES from the water supply that is vital for everyday life and agriculture in order to force the people out. Make no mistake, Turkey and Turkish-backed forces have their eye on this corridor and are determined to gain control. Only the resilient people of the AANES stand in the way.
However, there is hope. In response to this growing persecution, Shai Fund developed a solution to help the people stand strong: Funding new sources of water for the villages in the AANES.
To date, two villages have already been outfitted with this new, innovative water system, which provides clean drinking water as well as water critical for irrigation. Each system is capable of producing over 80,000 liters per day, enough to supply 80 families or 1,120 individuals with clean drinking water.
Shai Fund has plans to outfit another 23 – 25 villages with this innovative water system. Pray for the funding of this initiative vital to sustaining the lives and livelihood of our Christian brothers and sisters in the AANES region of North East Syria.
URGENT NEED FOR MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Recently, Shai Fund was able to send a humanitarian cargo plane filled with over $7 million of relief aid to Syrian believers and other religious minorities in the AANES. The humanitarian effort was largely funded by Christian individuals and organizations from the United States, and came at a critical time of need.
However, this area of Syria has been under ever-increasing persecution since 2012, and since December 2023, has been completely cut off from life-sustaining medical shipments. Now the people living in this region are desperately in need of vital medication to treat life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart conditions. At this moment, Shai Fund has secured 60 pallets of high value medications and vital medical supplies – enough to fill an entire cargo plane – donations from concerned Christians and various companies in the U.S.
In order to send the cargo plane, The Shai Fund needs help from people like you: they need $350,000 USD to store, ship, and transport the medical supplies to Christians and other religious minorities in the AANES. If you would like to contribute to this project, please click the link below.
Thank you for offering a lifeline to believers in crisis by your support of this project and thank you for your continued prayers for our brothers and sisters in Christ in Syria. Both are a great expression of love.