ONE Magazine December 2022

Children in the Crosshairs

Giving children hope amid tragedy

God • World • Human Family • Church

COVER STORY

Broken, Not Crushed Hope for Ethiopian children after tragedy text by Hikma A. Abdulmejid with photographs by Abenezer Israel

FEATURES

Web Exclusive

A Letter From Ethiopia by Bishop Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun

A Letter From Palestine by Rami Tarazi

A Bright Spot

A day center graces a small Armenian town text by Gohar Abrahamyan with photographs by Nazik Armenakyan

When Duty Turns to Grace Hungarians answer call to be Good Samaritans by Laura Ieraci Reassuring Presence Egypt’s schools bolster the vulnerable text by Magdy Samaan with photographs by Hanaa Habib

t Children play on the grounds of Kidane Meheret Children’s Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Front: Elsa, at back, and Zecharias live at Kidane Meheret Children’s Home in Addis Ababa, which cares for orphans and abandoned children.

Back: Single mother Liana Simonyan and her daughter, Knarik, benefit from the Little Prince Center in Artashat, Armenia.

Photo Credits

Front cover, pages 2, 10-11, 13-17, 43, Abenezer Israel; page 3 (top), CNS photo/Paul Haring; pages 3 (upper left), 22-23, 25-29, back cover, Nazik Armenakyan; pages 3 (upper right), 32-35, David Bratnick; page 3 (lower left), George Jaraiseh; pages 3 (lower right and far right), 36-41, Hanaa Habib; page 4, Michael J.L. La Civita; page 5, St. Michael the Archangel parish in Odesa (UGCC); pages 6-7, CNS photo/ Tikds Negeri, Reuters; pages 8-9, CNS photo/ Giulia Paravinci, Reuters; pages 18-19, courtesy Near East Council of Churches; page 20, Sami Tarazi; page 21, CNEWA; pages 30-31, CNS photo/Junno Arocho Esteves.

ONE is published quarterly. ISSN: 1552-2016

CNEWA

Founded by the Holy Father, CNEWA shares the love of Christ with the churches and peoples of the East, working for, through and with the Eastern Catholic churches.

CNEWA connects you to your brothers and sisters in need. Together, we build up the church, affirm human dignity, alleviate poverty, encourage dialogue — and inspire hope.

Officers

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Chair and Treasurer Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, Secretary

Editorial Office

1011 First Avenue, New York, NY 10022-4195 1-212-826-1480; www.cnewa.org

©2022 Catholic Near East Welfare Association. All rights reserved. Member of the Catholic Media Association of the United States and Canada.

Publisher Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari Editorial Staff

Connections to CNEWA’s world

CNEWA Events in New York

As the December issue of ONE went to print, CNEWA was only days away from its inaugural gala on 13 December. The event honored Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and chair of CNEWA’s international board of trustees. CNEWA also conferred its first Faith and Culture Award to Carl A. Anderson, past supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus.

In anticipation of the gala, CNEWA held a partnered fundraising exhibition with InSight Artspace in Pelham, New York, in October and a photo exhibition at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in November.

The first of these, entitled “(de) construct,” featured the work of six female artists, including Kyiv artist Albina Yaloza. A portion of all art sales went toward CNEWA’s efforts in Ukraine. The second, “ ‘And Who Is My Neighbor?’ The Faces of CNEWA,” featured photos taken for ONE by female photojournalists over the years in some of the most difficult places in the world.

Read more about these events at cnewa.org

Travel to the Caucasus

CNEWA President Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari made a pastoral visit to CNEWA’s partners in the Caucasus in September. He visited CNEWAfunded programs in Armenia, managed by Caritas Armenia and the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate, and then traveled to Georgia, where he visited programs of Caritas Georgia, the Armenian, AssyroChaldean and Latin Catholic communities. He was accompanied by Michael J.L. La Civita, director of communications, and Thomas Varghese, director of programs.

“Everywhere I go, Lebanon, Ukraine, Poland, Iraq, Gaza, Armenia, new traumatic experiences demand our attention. This is key to the success in helping the church heal the people it is called to serve,” said Msgr. Vaccari, who was visiting CNEWA’s regional offices in Egypt and Ethiopia in November as ONE went to press.

Read about the Little Prince Center in Artashat, Armenia, one of the programs he visited on pages 18-25 in this issue of ONE.

Update From Ethiopia

On 2 November, the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front came to a permanent cease-fire agreement after two years of conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

On 12 November, the two parties agreed on the implementation of the peace deal and humanitarian aid organizations began delivering lifesaving supplies to Tigray, which had been cut off from international aid during most of the conflict, with only occasional windows of reprieve, leaving millions of people destitute.

Argaw Fantu, CNEWA’s regional director in Ethiopia, welcomed the peace agreement.

“These are encouraging signs for the restoration of peace,” he said. “We expect in the next few months CNEWA will join the delivery of humanitarian support to waraffected people in Tigray.”

Aid to Ukraine

Year to date, CNEWA has released $5,772,968 in emergency assistance, including disbursements in September and October, to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and surrounding countries welcoming refugees from the ongoing war. The funds were distributed across programs, including the winterization efforts of shelters, centers for internally displaced persons and seminaries through the installation of generators, heaters and furnaces, as well as the purchase of fuel and sleeping bags.

Continue to support these efforts at cnewa.org/Ukraine.

Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari is flanked by Mary Beth Fisher, left, and Marcella Smith, friends of CNEWA helping to organize our centenary kick-off events, at the agency’s photo exhibition in New York on 1 November.

TV Show Launched

A new television program, ONE-toONE, based on the award-winning journalism in ONE magazine, aired on Catholic Faith Network (CFN) after Thanksgiving.

The pilot episode focused on what the local church is doing to respond to the grave situation in Lebanon — a result of the country’s political and economic collapse and exacerbated by the port explosion of August 2020.

Watch the pilot episode at catholicfaithnetwork.org. Be sure to send us your feedback: communications@cnewa.org

Update on India Office

Restating CNEWA’s commitment to support the Eastern churches in India, Msgr. Vaccari announced on 6 November that CNEWA’s India Trust would be closed in compliance with recent amendments to India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

“The F.C.R.A. legislation since September 2020 means that CNEWA India must suspend all fund transfers to our beneficiaries through our Ernakulam office in India,” he explained.

With the pending dissolution of the trust, and given the circumstances and restrictions of Indian law, M.L. Thomas, who headed the Ernakulam office, resigned as the executive director and chief functionary for CNEWA’s India Trust.

“M.L. has served CNEWA in India for 20 years. For this service we wish to express our heartfelt gratitude and assure him of our prayers,” said Msgr. Vaccari.

The Reverend Abraham Kavilpurayidathil, vice chancellor of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Major

Archepiscopal Curia, was named to succeed Mr. Thomas until the dissolution of the trust.

Mathews Joseph, program officer for Welfare Services Ernakulam, shared the impact of the F.C.R.A. amendments with ONE, saying they have “led to a reduction in funding” for the charitable work of the church. His “Letter From India” is available exclusively at cnewa.org/blog

Despite the changes required by Indian law, said Msgr. Vaccari, “Our priority is to continue CNEWA’s commitment and mission of great humanitarian, pastoral and educational service in India.”

Connect With CNEWA

“Connections With Msgr. Peter” continues to grow its reach. The monthly livestream features CNEWA’s president interviewing key members of the agency responsible for carrying out its mission and providing fruitful updates from CNEWA’s partners around the world. Some of his guests have included Anna Dombrovska, projects officer for Ukraine, Thomas Varghese, director of programs, Joseph Hazboun, regional director for Jerusalem, and Argaw Fantu, regional director for Ethiopia.

The webinars are available on CNEWA’s YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

A priest at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Greek Catholic Parish in Odesa, Ukraine, distributes CNEWA-funded food aid to parishioners.

A Church That Suffers With the People

by Bishop Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun

My dear brothers and sisters, the war in the northern part of Ethiopia, now in its third year, has created one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in our country.

My eparchy of Bahir Dar-Dessie, which borders southern Tigray — the epicenter of the fighting — has been one of the hardest-hit areas.

Abune Sintayehu Gelaw, vicar general, and Abune Yohannes Wosen, O.F.M. Cap., the area coordinator for Kombolcha and Dessie, have been working tirelessly to assist the people in the town of Kobo.

Kobo is about 19 miles from the border of Tigray and was impacted severely by the war. There, the Capuchins and the Ursuline Sisters had been serving the community through education and health care. They carried out many pastoral and social activities, too, including administering an orphanage with 22 girls and one with 17 boys. When the town came under the control of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front for the first time in mid-July 2021, we had difficulty communicating with the Ursuline Sisters for months afterward.

The Capuchins, who also serve Kobo’s parish of St. Joseph and administer its elementary and high schools, managed to escape with the children, walking about 30 miles south to the next village, Weldya, saving their lives.

This year, on 25 August, the sisters fled. As soon as they left, the two schools, the clinic, the convent, the parish church and the rectory were looted and damaged; the altar and tabernacle, desecrated; the church linens soiled and the doors and windows, broken. As of September, close to 100,000 people had been displaced and had found refuge in the surrounding villages.

Sunlight casts the shadow of an angel sculpture upon a wall outside Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

During this time of war, random acts of violence targeted civilians. I heard the sad story of a father of three children who was killed by an unknown person while simply walking along the road. It is a huge loss for the family, and it is difficult for his widow and children to survive. The family now relies on our help. As many people are requesting food, providing food to

“We need peace and reconciliation in our hearts, for I believe these are key to ending conflict.”

those in dire need has become a major challenge for us.

In Kobo, we are also faced with the challenge of reviving our clinic and schools; little remains. Bringing students back to school is important, as it is through education that we may transform society. But to do this, we need food for the children; we need to help the families settle; we need school materials and equipment.

I am deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of children, women and the elderly, who are extremely vulnerable during this conflict. Whatever the cause of the conflict, we should pray for the people of Tigray, for those who suffer due to the lack of security, food and medicine, for the children facing increased risk of hunger, abuse and separation from their parents.

Before conflict erupted in Tigray in November 2020, families struggled with crop failures, food shortages, inflated food and fuel prices and a health care system overburdened by recurrent drought, desert locusts and the spread of COVID-19. The situation is far worse now.

In addition, in the northwestern part of the Eparchy of Bahir Dar-Dessie, what is called the Metekel Zone in the BenishangulGumuz Region, a different, underreported conflict has been going on for years. An urgent, scaled-up response is needed. The hostilities intensified in 2021, without a reconciliation process in sight, affecting the lives of civilians and leading to a large number of displaced persons.

The humanitarian situation is alarming. Thousands of houses were torched and people fled, hiding in the forests. Thousands remain cut off from humanitarian assistance; access to basic services is limited. Many of the internally displaced people, most of them from the Gumuz community, the largest ethnic group in the region, have not received any food

People returning from a market in Yechila in Ethiopia's Tigray Region walk past numerous vehicles scorched during a two-year bloody conflict. A cease-fire agreement was signed by the warring parties on 2 November.

assistance, emergency health care, shelter or other essential, non-food items. While the number of our aid partners increased in 2021, their support is inadequate given the level of need.

In the town of Gublak, also in the Metekel Zone, some chapels have reopened even as others remain shuttered. The chapels in nearby Gilgel Beles, the administrative center of Metekel, have not been functional for some time as they were either damaged or destroyed. Sadly, the schools have suffered the same fate.

Recently, Abune Desalegn Haile, the pastoral coordinator in the area, and the Comboni Missionaries, who minister there, encouraged many Gumuz to leave the forests to come to church. The annual parish feast on 8 October, dedicated to Mary, Mother of the Church, bore great witness to these efforts as a multitude of people participated in the liturgy. However, during this devastating time of war, hatred is taking hold and grudges are rooted in the heart of our citizens.

My dear brothers and sisters, your prayers and support are greatly needed to overcome the difficulties at this time. We need humanitarian assistance to save lives. We need to ensure education for our children and young people, which is indispensable if we are to maintain peace.

And we need peace and reconciliation in our hearts, for I believe these are key to ending conflict. We are praying for peace to prevail among us all across the country.

I leave with you my love and my blessing that each of you may become happier and holier with each passing day.

Bishop Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun leads the Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Bahir DarDessie.

Editors’ note: The author changed the names of some children profiled here to protect their privacy.

It was late afternoon when Sister Lutgarda Camilleri walked into Kidane Meheret Children’s Home. As she opened the front door unannounced, the toddlers immediately stopped playing and shifted their gaze toward her. She had caught them off guard. Then, joyously they all rushed to greet her, hugging her one by one.

The home for children, named for the Mother of God, Covenant of Mercy, is located within the compound of a Catholic parish of the same name in Kebena, a suburb south of Addis Ababa. It currently houses 86 children, some with serious health conditions, including H.I.V./AIDS, autism and a variety of special needs.

“We come from different backgrounds, but we come for the same reason,” says Wondemagegn Breen, 29, who lived at the orphanage until his adoption by an American family in 2006. He resides in Seattle and was visiting the home in October.

“The fact that most of us lose our family at a young age and we come to a place where everybody has the same story… you don’t feel alone or left out,” he says.

“When children would arrive at the orphanage, nobody would tell us, ‘This person has H.I.V./AIDS.’ We just had pure love [for each other],” he adds.

Six children currently at Kidane Meheret live with H.I.V./AIDS, which is still a significant concern in Ethiopia. World Bank Data for 2021 indicates 42,000 children in Ethiopia, 14 years old and younger, and 3,500 young people aged 15-24 are infected with H.I.V./AIDS. A few

Sister Lutgarda Camilleri hugs Edlawit, one of 86 children who currently live at Kidane Meheret Children’s Home in Addis Ababa.

Broken, Not Crushed

Hope for Ethiopian children after personal tragedy

text by Hikma A. Abdulmejid with photographs by Abenezer Israel

CHILDREN IN NEED

young adults with H.I.V./AIDS, after graduating high school, have moved on from the home to attend university or to start life on their own.

Established by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady in 1933, Kidane Meheret is thought to be the first home of its kind in Ethiopia. The Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus, a Maltese order, assumed responsibility for the home in 1996, succeeding an Ethiopian religious, Sister Josepha Tesemma, who ran it alone until her death at the age of 95.

Sister Lutgarda, who had moved from Malta to Ethiopia in 1969 to work at Kidane Meheret Catholic School, now serves as the director. Her community administers four other child care programs in the country.

Sintayehu sits in his crib and smiles as he watches Sister Lutgarda approach.

“Buchu, Buchu! Mwah, mwah!”

Sister Lutgarda cries out, blowing the 16-month-old a kiss from afar. “We call him Buchu,” she says. “That’s his nickname.”

Sister Eyerusalem Balcha, who stands next to Sintayehu’s crib, recounts the boy’s first days at the orphanage.

“When Buchu came, he was underweight and tiny. We were saddened by his situation and feared he wouldn’t survive,” she says. “But look at him! Now, he drinks his formula, he is playful, healthy and a big boy!”

The sisters share the stories of several children in their care. Tadele, 7, is autistic and lies on his bed most of the time. He does not speak and has a physical disability. Ruhama, 2, was abandoned by her mother who was raped and feared her family’s anger and shame. Eightmonth-old Paulos, too, was abandoned by his mother, who is currently under medical care after being raped in Saudi Arabia, where she was a migrant worker. Hilina,

12, has severe physical disabilities. She cannot speak and lies in bed all day. But the sisters say her health improved significantly after she arrived at the home two years ago severely malnourished and underweight. Sister Lutgarda caresses Hilina’s head.

“We don’t know what happened to her,” she says about the neglect the young girl had experienced.

Then she points out Gabriel among the children on the playground. “When he came, he was 10 days old and undernourished. No one believed he would live,” she says. Now 11 years old, Gabriel is in the sixth grade and is a skilled soccer player.

The home receives children who are orphaned, abandoned or disabled through a public system governed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. Previously, the sisters would take in children they found abandoned near the home or brought to them by police, but new federal laws regulating the care of children changed about 10 years ago, Sister Lutgarda explains.

Mr. Breen gets emotional speaking about how the support he received at Kidane Meheret has impacted his life.

“You could see what kind of men and women we have become [and yet] it is home for us. It never changes,” he says.

Mr. Breen works in the Seattle area as a direct support professional for an organization that provides residential care to adults with special needs and runs his own business as a personal trainer and exercise science specialist.

His first trip back to Ethiopia since his adoption was in 2015, and he has returned to visit every two years since — for three to four months at a time — to volunteer.

He established a network of more than 25 people in Seattle, who also

Top, children play on a jungle gym in the orphanage playground in Addis Ababa. Bottom, Kidane Meheret Girls Hostel in Meki, Ethiopia, gives girls a safe place to learn and heal from tragic circumstances.

were adopted from the children’s home and who contribute funds so Mr. Breen can purchase food and other supplies during his monthslong stays.

This year, Mr. Breen volunteered from September to November in the form of teaching and mentoring.

“I advise the children on how they should treat each other,” he says. “This year, some of the children want to develop their English language skills, so I tutor them.”

Many of the children feel the pain of abandonment and hope to be adopted, he adds, but adoption does not happen for most of them.

“These kids need love,” he says. “They just enjoy it when people come.”

Sister Lutgarda explains adoptions decreased significantly since foreign adoptions were banned by the Ethiopian government in January 2018, citing concerns about the safety of Ethiopian children abroad. In response, the sisters began an international sponsorship program to help pay for the children’s time at the home. Some local people will offer to purchase clothing or other supplies, although such assistance has dropped off since the COVID-19 pandemic, she says.

About 88 miles south of Addis Ababa, in the provincial city of Meki, 25 girls live in a home founded in 2011, also named Kidane Meheret.

Edna came to Kidane Meheret Girls Hostel when she was in the fourth grade, after being gang-raped at age 12. Her parents reported the crime to the police. However, the men who raped

“These kids need love. They just enjoy it when people come.”

The CNEWA Connection

Sister Eyerusalem Balcha plays with Paulos at the children’s home. Opposite, a girl sits at a desk in the study of the girls hostel. Bottom right, Sister Lutgarda Camilleri has been working with children in Ethiopia for 53 years.

“Sometimes families bring their daughters and, after evaluating their financial status, we take them in,” she explains. “In the case of girls who were victims of sexual violence, the local Women and Children’s Affairs Office sends them, because that’s where the girls go to plead for support.”

Keeping the girls’ background and experiences confidential is paramount for the sake of their mental health, she adds.

“The girls here don’t know what happened to whom,” she explains. “We are very careful that their psychological health is not jeopardized.”

The girls may live there until they graduate high school. Then, for those who wish to go to university, the leadership team of the home coordinates a sponsorship through the Meki Catholic Secretariat.

Edna knew her father was an alcoholic and appealed to his addiction to buy his silence. Her mother stopped pursuing the matter with the police after the men threatened her life.

Edna, now 15 and in the eighth grade, suffers from a painful menstrual cycle and other women's health issues. She has found a supportive and caring community of adults and peers at the home.

Abeba, too, was gang-raped by seven men, but her parents who struggle with alcoholism never followed up with authorities. A social worker who worked at the hostel learned about the crime and reported it to the police, who did nothing. Abeba was given refuge at the hostel and is currently attending

university, despite the psychological and physical health issues she faces.

Liya was walking home from school when she was approached by a group of men who tried to abduct her for a forced marriage. She managed to run back into the school building for safety, but the incident traumatized her, and she struggles with the effects of the trauma. She, too, has found a new home at Kidane Meheret.

“The girls are excellent in school but come from families with poor financial backgrounds, girls who are orphaned, who are victims of sexual violence, and those who were or are at risk of abduction for marriage,” says Tigist Mekonen, a social worker employed by the home for eight years.

More than 15 alumnae have graduated with university degrees in a variety of fields, including accounting, medicine, public health administration, journalism and agriculture.

“They are all successful in their careers,” says Ms. Mekonen.

Girls and women face many hardships in Ethiopia — social inequality, domestic abuse, exploitation and sexual violence. Sadly, sweeping crimes against girls under the rug is common.

Child marriage, for instance, despite being banned by the Ethiopian government in 2000, remains a significant problem. According to a UNICEF study in 2020, 40 percent of Ethiopian women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18, and 14

were married before their 15th birthday. These statistics place Ethiopia 14th worldwide for the prevalence of child marriage based on national percentages. However, Ethiopia is ranked fourth worldwide for the absolute number of women aged 20-24 who were married before age 18, nearly 2.3 million. India, Bangladesh and Nigeria take the top three spots.

The abduction of girls for forced marriage is a related problem, often linked with extreme poverty, and more prevalent in the country’s south. A 2016 UNICEF report indicates at least 13 percent of the married women aged 12-24 in one southern region had been abducted and forced to marry their abductor.

The staff at Kidane Meheret Girls Hostel in Meki works to protect girls from exploitation and violence and assists them in building a brighter future. They say the need is greater than what the Catholic-run

“You could see what kind of men and women we have become [and yet] it is home for us. It never changes.”

At left, top, children in a classroom at Kidane Meheret Children’s Home. Bottom, Sister Anney Joseph speaks with girls who live at the hostel.

home can provide. The increased cost of living creates greater stress on families and girls bear the brunt; it also prevents the administrators from taking in more girls.

“When the hostel was founded, we were able to accept 31 girls. The number had to decrease over time due to the cost of living,” explains Ms. Mekonen. “We currently have 24 girls and were only able to take in two new girls this year.”

Sister Anney Joseph, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, an Indian order, has directed the home for the past four years, managing the entire operation, including raising funds to cover the girls’ school fees, food and other living expenses.

“A drop of water makes the ocean,” says Sister Anney. “We are always grateful to God for the support we get.”

“This is a work of love. Donors don’t know these girls, but reaching them through CNEWA is a big deal for them,” she continues. “If CNEWA’s support was not there it would be impossible for us to continue.”

The girls study at Meki Catholic School nearby. All close in age, they also receive “counseling and spiritual advice … without mentioning the fact that some of them might have experienced violence, loss of family or other issues,” says Ms. Mekonen. “We try to teach them that they can see beyond those issues and build their lives positively.”

The young women are encouraged to pursue their education. They are taught ethics and morals and basic life skills, including personal care and hygiene, as well as “the consequences relationships and sex at an early age may bring,” she adds.

“We take on the responsibility of the girls like mothers. If they are sick, we take care of them,” she says. “We all live with love and respect.”

Yohanna Haile, a social worker who has worked at the home for three years, explains the girls are given daily chores to help prepare them for life on their own. They clean their individual rooms, the bathroom, the dining room, and their surroundings as assigned, according to a schedule, and they cook their stews every Sunday.

“Whatever may be the background of the girls, when they come here, they are provided with a better life than they had before,” says Ms. Haile. “The home is where they learn a lot of things about life and exchange experiences with each other.

“It is a place they love. It is a place they want to maintain for the girls who will succeed them.”

CNEWA’s regional director for Ethiopia, Argaw Fantu, cites Kidane Meheret in Addis Ababa and Kidane Meheret in Meki as prime examples of how the Catholic Church in the northeast African nation combats trafficking and the exploitation of children and other vulnerable members of society. While Catholics constitute a tiny minority of the total population, Catholic-run child care programs, more than 200 of which are kindergartens and elementary schools, make up the second-largest educational system in the country.

“Through education and instruction, children and those targeted for exploitation are instructed on how to prevent their own exploitation,” he says of the church’s commitment to the safeguarding of “the Lord’s little ones.”

Hikma A. Abdulmejid is a freelance journalist and lecturer in journalism and communications at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. She has been published in Addis Fortune and writes for a number of U.N. agencies.

A LETTER FROM PALESTINE

A Space to Grow in Gaza

by Rami Tarazi

When I was young, my dream was to make a big impact on the world.

However, as I grew, I learned the world just might be bigger than what I had thought.

I didn’t give up on my dream; I just adapted it, focusing on helping my own Christian community in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s small Palestinian Christian community, numbering about 1,000 people, is proud of its homeland and faith. Palestinian Christians constitute barely 0.05 percent of the more than 2 million majority-Muslim population in the Gaza Strip, and everyday life — for Christians and Muslims — is challenging.

For more than 15 years, Gazans have lived under strict confinement. Egypt and Israel imposed a blockade when Gazans elected Hamas candidates to lead their government. The blockade prevents freedom of movement for both people and goods.

Overcrowded neighborhoods, noise and pollution, as well as limited basic services, such as access to clean water, electricity and basic health care services, are common. Poverty and unemployment are rampant and most of the unemployed are young people.

Years of war and bombardments have made a deep and lasting psychological impact on people of all ages, especially younger generations, who have never known anything other than these circumstances. Despite all of the hardship, Gazans remain adaptable and resilient.

I, too, experienced the desperation and hopelessness other young people in Gaza have felt and continue to experience today. I was once a young person with no opportunities to express myself, and it made me feel “tied up.”

However, through CNEWAPontifical Mission’s leadership program, I finally had the chance to

The garden at the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center in Gaza includes a playground and safe space for people to gather.

grow, develop and gain the skills I needed to succeed.

CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has been present and working in Gaza for nearly a century, representing the church’s commitment to help local Christians remain steadfast. In recent years, the team based in Jerusalem has initiated a scholarship program that provides talented and ambitious Christian students with the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree.

As a complement to the scholarship program, CNEWAPontifical Mission has also

implemented an employment program, partnering with local Christian organizations to provide temporary placement for young graduates within their respective career field. This temporary employment opportunity not only helps the graduate gain experience and build the right job skills, but also provides a much-needed income for their families.

I believe in helping Christians to recognize that investing in themselves will help improve their situation and help them reach their goals. These opportunities will help

young people to build skills, gain experience, become spiritual or community leaders, and give back to their community.

I was fortunate enough to participate in both the leadership program, where I was awarded a full scholarship for my bachelor’s degree, and in the employment program, where I was placed with a local community-based organization. I worked hard and, eventually, improved my job skills, taking additional courses to develop other professional competencies and experience.

“I believe in helping Christians see that investing in themselves will help improve their situation and reach their goals.”

Above, CNEWA President Peter I. Vaccari, far left, and staff from CNEWA’s Jerusalem office meet with Rami Tarazi, far right, director of the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center in Gaza. Opposite, center staff participate in a training session in May.

At 29, I am now the managing director of the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center in Gaza. The center, which was years in the making, opened officially in September 2021. Since then, about 40,000 people have visited the center and benefited from its services and state-of-the-art facilities.

Created to serve the local community, the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center employs a full-time staff of about 12 people and welcomes student interns. About 21 young people have been offered this form of stable

work and we hope that, as the activities grow, more youth will be employed.

The two-story complex features a fitness center, a banquet hall, an auditorium, multipurpose rooms and conference space. The fitness center provides a safe, protected space for men and women to play sports and maintain their health and well-being, especially important given the difficulty of playing sports in the streets of Gaza, in particular for young women. The outdoor garden includes a playground for children and a friendly and relaxing atmosphere for outdoor activities for adults.

Social and cultural activities are limited in Gaza as well, especially for joint Christian-Muslim activities and programs or co-ed activities. For this reason, having the center in Gaza under an open-minded yet reserved Christian community is extremely vital to offer all

community members the opportunity to meet and interact, thus preserving the community’s fabric.

CNEWA-Pontifical Mission also had a hand in getting the center off the ground, providing small grants over the past decade to help with the construction process. However, more importantly, its vital support contributed toward employee salaries during this first year of the center’s operation, until the center could start generating revenue. This allowed the team at the center to implement its operational and advertising plan without the burden and pressure of covering salaries. In addition, the accompaniment and advice offered by CNEWAPontifical Mission staff during the center’s first few months, helping the administration conduct its work and implement its plans, were valued beyond imagination. n

A Bright Spot

A children’s day center graces a small Armenian town text by Gohar Abrahamyan with photographs by Nazik Armenakyan

Armine Karapetyan takes what she needs from among the books carefully arranged on a high ledge in a corner of the old metal shed that serves as her home. She sits down on a sofa to do her homework, leaving the small table for her younger siblings. At 14, she understands the importance of small sacrifices.

The youngest of the family, Ani, 6, sits at the table focused on her schoolwork, leaving only a little space for her brother, Napoleon, 9, who reluctantly starts his work, as he has little else to do.

The Karapetyan children live huddled together with their mother in their 270-square-foot metal container — an iron dungeon — commonly called a domik. It is located in a former industrial district on the outskirts of Artashat, Armenia, about 20 miles south of the capital, Yerevan. Now emptied of all industry, the district is isolated from the town, which has a population of about 19,000.

“We have been living here for eight years,” says the children’s mother, Alina. Then, she rubs her tired eyes with her work-worn hands. She had been harvesting since early morning.

“This is what we could afford, and we still haven’t fully paid off our debt,” she adds. “My husband died last year, and I lost all hope of getting out of here.”

The 39-year-old mother says she and her children can barely survive on the monthly government benefits that total 120,000 drams ($297), so each day she leaves her children at home alone to harvest crops in neighboring communities.

“What should I do? I’m trying to make ends meet,” she says. “All I earn is spent on buying firewood, so we can at least survive through the winter. Things are easier in the

Children at the Little Prince Center in Artashat, Armenia, pray before lunch.

summer, but there are many difficulties in the winter.

“We can somehow heat the domik, but in the auxiliary space under the tent next door, where we have our stove, cupboard and refrigerator, it is bitterly cold, and this cold gets into our bones, with the rainwater that falls on our heads.”

However, the Little Prince Center, a child care initiative of Caritas Armenia, has become a source of hope for Mrs. Karapetyan. Armine and Napoleon attend twice weekly; Ani is still too young to enroll.

“There, I know my children are in a warm, clean and safe environment. And the most important thing is they eat hot, normal meals,” says Mrs. Karapetyan. She is grateful for what they learn at the center and the opportunities for her children to socialize.

“They have been attending for only a few months, but they have now opened up so much,” she says.

“They communicate with others freely. They used to be very timid, but now they look happy. They have become cultured and have learned good manners and proper ways of speaking.”

The center also provides the family regularly with food, hygiene items, stationery and clothing.

“I experience a lot of hardship,” says the widow.

“I feel very sad this center is the only bright spot in our life. When my children come back home, I see how happy they are and, most importantly, they are not hungry.”

The Little Prince Center, located in the heart of Artashat, has been a “bright spot” in town since it opened in 2016. Twice a week, 95 children from Artashat and neighboring communities gather within the center’s brightly colored walls. Its mission is to contribute to the protection of children, young people and their families by

promoting healthy living, teaching life skills and providing social and psychological support.

Children must be 9 years old to enroll. Currently, 40 children, aged 9-11, and 55 adolescents, aged 1218, take part; 48 are boys and 47 are girls. Their parents, siblings and friends — numbering another 116 people — also benefit from additional programming.

The children come to the center at the end of their school day, starting at 2 p.m., just as the appetizing smell of a warm meal starts to waft in the air.

Project manager Armine Yepremyan says the center emphasizes the importance of providing healthy, calorie-rich food to the children. For some children,

problems, and many lack parenting skills, she says.

“Because of the lack of parenting skills, the work done at the center can often be wasted,” she says. “For this reason, we also work with parents. We regularly hold parenting skills courses for them, presenting the peculiarities that children have according to age, children’s rights and responsibilities, children’s needs and demands, emphasizing the prevention of violence.”

Social worker Anush Zazyan says the families’ socioeconomic problems are due mainly to high unemployment and underemployment in the region. The center helps parents improve their socioeconomic situation by

Alina Karapetyan and her children live in a 270-square-foot domik on the outskirts of Artashat, Armenia.

“If we keep a family for years, first of all, it makes the beneficiary dependent on our services, as well as on our work, on our team, and this means that our work has failed to yield results,” she says.

In addition to the challenges of their personal family situation, Ms. Yepremyan says, the children at the center continue to struggle with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s ongoing political strife.

The 44-day war in NagornoKarabakh that began in September 2020 had disastrous consequences

this meal is the only proper food they will have all day, she adds.

The children will then participate in a wide range of activities, where they learn sewing, dancing, singing, computer skills, cooking and etiquette. They also benefit from the services of a psychologist and a social worker. The children receive hygiene products twice a year and stationery and gifts once a year. The center also provides shoes and clothing to those children in need of them.

Social worker Gayane Hovhannisyan says children are selected for the program based on an application process. Most of the parents who submit the application for their children face serious social, economic and psychological

offering career training. To date, eight parents were trained as tailors, five as hair stylists, four as manicurists, four in confectionery and one as a make-up artist. Another group of 15 parents participated in entrepreneurship training that included learning how to write a business plan.

“They are now familiar with the labor market,” says Ms. Zazyan. “They have gained a competitive edge and are able to provide the main income for their families.”

The center also works to develop a family’s independence and selfsufficiency, she adds, and children are assisted through guidance counseling in choosing a future profession.

for Armenia, which suffered 4,000 human casualties and substantial territorial losses. Since then, regular escalation along the restive Armenian-Azerbaijani border continues to result in loss of life and keeps Armenian society in constant turmoil.

The Little Prince Center tries to involve as many children as possible, including those displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh war, says Ms. Yepremyan, since no other program for at-risk children exists in the region.

The children “have endless fears, they are so stressed that it also affects the quality of their education,” she says. However, regular discussion groups, facilitated

“The child has tasty meals here. … You do understand how important that is for a parent, right?

I know she will go to bed with a full stomach at least twice a week.”

by a psychologist and social workers, have helped the children significantly, she adds.

Twice a week, Arsen Yepremyan travels on public transit from the village of Taperakan to attend the program at the Little Prince Center in Artashat.

“Here I get what I wouldn’t get anywhere else,” he says, smiling. “When you come here, your daily life changes completely. First, we eat delicious meals. Then, we attend a group of our choice and not only have a good time, but also gain very important knowledge.”

The 13-year-old is taking the computer course, which covers

everything from basic computer skills to how to create software and websites. He is interested in robotics and hopes one day to operate robots he will engineer himself.

In the sewing room, the children sit next to the sewing machines placed in neat rows. They follow the group leader’s instructions and

“I want my child to learn the best, so she doesn’t have to suffer like me, and she can learn a lot of things here.”

The CNEWA Connection

While visiting Armenia in September, CNEWA president Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari visited the Little Prince Center, which is one of several child care programs named for the Little Prince supported by CNEWA in Armenia. The center in Artashat alone provides meals, medical attention, counseling, tutoring and more to approximately 100 children. The centers are staffed by social workers, psychologists and counselors, illustrating how psychosocial support is one of the pillars of the center’s work. CNEWA is committed to helping families in Georgia and Armenia through the local churches and their social service arms, the Caritas family.

To support this important mission, call 1-866-322-4441 (Canada) or 1-800-442-6392 (United States).

Liana Simonyan and her daughter, Knarik, learn different skills in the various workshops at the Little Prince Center. Above, Knarik participates in a dance class.

grow more confident with each proper stitch they make.

Tamara Mikayelyan shows off a doll she crocheted and then inspects a bundle of threads, carefully selecting the colors she needs to start a new project in her crochet class. Colorful handbags, stuffed toys — teddy bears, bunnies, giraffes and frogs — are displayed on a shelf.

The 11-year-old has been attending the center for only two months and says she chose to learn how to crochet to help earn some income for her family. She and her

brother are being raised by their single mother, who can barely care for their needs.

“I can make a purse. Now I want to make a toy snowman. I am preparing for winter, the new year. Maybe I will give it away or I can even sell it,” she says, as she prepares for her work.

After crochet class, Tamara goes to dance class, where the children learn both modern and Armenian folk dances.

All of the children participate in a class on proper etiquette and good manners, taught by Kristine Khachatryan, a volunteer and the center’s senior group leader.

“It is very important that children learn good manners from a young age,” says Mrs. Khachatryan, who believes a civilized society is a

“We have to cross this fast-flowing river holding each other’s hand, otherwise we will fail.”

prerequisite for the creation of a proper state. “Most of the children do not know basic table manners.

“We try to explain the most important things in life to children who are in a difficult life situation,” she continues. “We have to cross this fast-flowing river holding each other’s hand, otherwise we will fail.”

Mrs. Khachatryan says the local priests often visit and have important conversations with the children about religion, education and other life issues, “which is very much needed.”

Knarik Simonyan, Liana Simonyan’s 11-year-old daughter, has been attending the center for a few months and already her mother has noticed a positive effect.

“She rarely talked to anyone before. She was kind of isolated, but now she is one of the most active children, freely communicating with all,” says Mrs. Simonyan, pointing to her daughter in the dance class. Knarik follows the teacher with great enthusiasm and performs the dance moves gracefully.

“The child has tasty meals here,” says Mrs. Simonyan. “You do understand how important that is for a parent, right? I know she will go to bed with a full stomach at least twice a week.”

At 40 years old, Mrs. Simonyan lives with a heart condition. Her legs are swollen and in pain and, although she has difficulty walking, she always accompanies her daughter to the center to ensure she she does not miss any classes. Mrs. Simonyan joined the sewing and pattern-making group herself.

“It’s true, I can’t see well, but I want to learn how to sew well,” she says. “I’m doing well already. I hope I will be able to take care of my family’s needs.”

Mrs. Simonyan works as a cleaner, but her large family lives in poor conditions and has many needs — her two eldest sons have health problems. She says the center has become an oasis from her everyday worries, a place where people educate children with care and where parents can learn a lot.

“Sometimes I can hear what is being taught and I gain a lot of knowledge, for example, about how to host and entertain guests in your home. I would gladly come every day with my daughter. I would stay here all day. I would really like them to include parents in more programs,” she says.

“They are so caring here that you forget all your troubles,” she continues. “I would like my child to spend more time here. The conditions are much better than in our home. My child sees only good things here. I often bring her so she does not witness arguments in our home; the child is more secure and feels better here.”

The woman wipes away tears, as she watches the workers attend to her child. Her gaze communicates gratitude.

Mrs. Simonyan says only a person armed with knowledge can overcome difficulties.

“My abilities are not enough to help my daughter,” she adds. “But I see that she is good at learning. I want my child to learn the best, so she doesn’t have to suffer like me, and she can learn a lot of things here.”

Pave a brighter future for Armenia’s children

To learn more about the children and families served by Armenia’s Little Prince centers, listen to the exclusive audio report at

I cnewa.ca u

When Duty Turns to Grace Hungarians answer

call to be Good Samaritans

by Laura Ieraci

After two years of COVID-19 restrictions, Ildiko Kovacsne Tamas was hopeful the 2022 tourist season would give her guesthouse in Mariapocs, a small town in eastern Hungary, the boost it needed.

Then, she received a phone call.

Officials from Hungary’s disaster recovery service informed her that, as part of a national plan for emergency humanitarian aid, she was obliged to open her family-

owned guesthouse to Ukrainian refugees for an indefinite period of time.

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, leading to a mass exodus of Ukrainians to neighboring nations. Mariapocs, known for its basilica dedicated to a weeping icon of the Virgin Mary, is located only 40 miles from the Ukrainian border.

“The government effectively seized our guesthouse,” says Ildiko,

“and we were mandated to provide housing and three meals a day to the refugees they would send our way.”

The guesthouse quickly filled to capacity with 38 refugees, mostly women, children and elderly. By autumn, 14 remained, as some had moved on to join friends or family farther west.

Halyna and Andriy Khavana, both 68 years old, were among those who stayed.

They fled Volnovakha, Ukraine, about 40 miles north of Mariupol, in Donetsk Oblast, on 2 March, after their 10-story apartment building crumbled under the force of Russian missiles.

The couple took a train to Chop, the last stop on the line in Ukraine, where the Tisza River creates a

natural border with Hungary. There, a chartered bus picked up those escaping the war and drove them across the border to facilities converted into temporary shelters.

Halyna and Andriy arrived at a hotel in the town of Nyirbator on 5 March. When the couple were told they had to leave after Easter, an aid worker contacted Ildiko to ask if she had any room to spare.

Months later, taking cover under a gazebo from a hot September sun,

Halyna and Andriy express gratitude for Ildiko’s hospitality.

They have everything they need at the guesthouse, says Andriy, good food and a safe place to sleep. They are hopeful to return to Ukraine once the war has ended, but they face the stark reality of having to start from nothing.

“We have nothing left,” says Andriy. “We will need to start from the beginning, from nothing and begin life again.”

Caritas Hungary volunteers distribute food to Ukrainian refugees at a train station in Budapest in March.

The CNEWA Connection

Tamas Olah, right, director of Caritas Nyiregyhaza, loads supplies for a parish in western Ukraine that is assisting those internally displaced by the war. Opposite, Yulia Ponomarenko and her daughter, Viktoria, fled Ukraine in March and have been living at a guesthouse in Mariapocs, Hungary, ever since.

other without a translator or the aid of the Google Translate app — but Ildiko admits it was hard going at first.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has caused the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, forcing 7.8 million Ukrainians to flee. To date, CNEWA has distributed more than $5.7 million in aid to those who have remained within Ukraine as well as to those seeking refuge outside its borders, including funds to Caritas Hungary and the Greek Catholic Church in Hungary, whose work is profiled in this article.

To help CNEWA continue its work to support those displaced by the war on Ukraine, call 1-866-322-4441 (Canada) or 1-800-442-6392 (United States).

Yulia, 32, sits with the elderly couple. She fled from Dnipro, central Ukraine, with her 6-year-old daughter, Viktoria, on 11 March, after Russian fire hit a target close to their home.

“I feared for our lives, and I didn’t want to take any chances,” she says. She and her husband decided it was best for her to leave with Viktoria. They, too, took the train to Chop, but were driven to the Mariapocs guesthouse straightaway, arriving on 15 March.

Yulia is in touch daily with her husband, who continues to work at a supermarket in Dnipro; she expects he will be called to the front before long.

“My daughter understands the situation,” says Yulia. “She misses her father dearly, but she is also afraid of the war, and she prefers to stay in Mariapocs.”

Yulia enrolled her daughter in a kindergarten in town, despite her concern that Viktoria does not speak Hungarian. She hopes they will be back in Dnipro in time for Viktoria to start grade 1.

The three refugees sometimes pray at the Greek Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Mariapocs in town, offering their petitions for peace and their family’s safety at the shrine. The local faith community, Greek Catholics mostly, has been welcoming — all three refugees are Orthodox Christians. They also stopped short of commenting on the war, preferring to reiterate their gratitude instead.

“We thank God we met Ildiko,” says Andriy, “because she accepted us like family and literally gives us everything we need.”

Ildiko and Andriy smile at each other with mutual appreciation — although neither understands the

“We were overwhelmed. It was really difficult for us financially at the beginning,” she says, adding that it took more than four months for the Hungarian government to send her the promised daily stipend of 4,000 Hungarian forint ($10) per person.

The amount barely covers the cost of housing and food, not to mention diapers and personal hygiene products, she says. The guesthouse receives assistance from Caritas Nyiregyhaza, the local branch of Caritas Hungary that services Mariapocs. Ildiko receives no compensation for lost business revenue.

Still, she and her family have gone beyond the government mandate, helping the refugees with legal papers, taking them to the Ukrainian embassy, clothing them and driving their children to a local afterschool program run by the Greek Catholic Church. When one of the refugee families had a baby, Ildiko organized a large celebration and her daughter was the godmother.

“We grew to like and love these people,” she adds. “With my husband we were thinking that, even if we wouldn’t have gotten the financial help promised by the government, we still would have done it, because we gained a lot from them.”

Then she shares her heartbreak: The refugee family with the new baby left for Germany soon after the baptism without saying goodbye.

she says.

Humanitarian aid organizations in Hungary serving in areas close to Ukraine’s border were among the first to respond to the needs created by the rush of Ukrainians fleeing the shelling.

Caritas Nyiregyhaza is one of 16 diocesan offices of the national Caritas Hungary, which is the social service charity of the Catholic community in Hungary. It operates in the Hungarian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Nyiregyhaza, whose territory includes the northeastern tip of the country extending east to the Ukrainian border and is among the poorest regions in Hungary.

Within 24 hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the eparchy’s Caritas staff rushed food, water, blankets and other supplies to the border. They also drove supplies into Ukraine’s westernmost region, Transcarpathia, upon the appeal of some priests in the area, and made use of the return trip to transport refugees to Hungary.

“There were such huge lines of cars waiting to cross the border, so the people just piled up in those towns and villages of Transcarpathia,” says Tamas Olah, director of Caritas Nyiregyhaza.

The war has caused the largest refugee crisis and humanitarian relief effort in Europe since World War II. The UNHCR reports, as of 15 November, 7.8 million Ukrainians were registered as refugees across the continent. Of these, an estimated 3 million people had moved on from countries neighboring Ukraine to other countries in Europe or to the United States. An additional 7 million people were displaced within Ukraine.

While only 32,000 Ukrainians were registered officially with Hungarian authorities for temporary protection status by mid-November — among the fewest in all European

countries — 1.75 million people fled Ukraine through Hungary.

Caritas Nyiregyhaza was among the five major aid organizations selected by the Hungarian government on 27 February to run a refugee welcome center at a border crossing. Operating out of a cultural center in Barabas, a town of 800 people less than one mile from Ukraine, Caritas staff and volunteers registered 600 refugees per day for the first two weeks.

“This was only the number of people who stopped in to see us,” says Tamas. “Hundreds more were entering at this border crossing every day.”

The number of registrations at the center decreased to 300 daily in the two weeks that followed, before dropping to about 100 a day for the next month. That daily rate halved after Easter. By September, Caritas had registered 6,500 people total and daily registrations dropped to five per week.

Jozsef Trescsula, from the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine and of Hungarian origin, was among the seminarians sent to volunteer at the Caritas center in Barabas for its first 45 days of operation. In formation for the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ukraine, he was

“We were like a huge family and we really took care of them,”

“The difficulty of this situation is that these people are waiting. Everyone is waiting, and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

studying in Nyiregyhaza when the war began.

The seminarians worked long days — and overnight in the first few weeks of the war — sorting and distributing the masses of food and other supplies donated by the European community. Fluently bilingual in Hungarian and Ukrainian, Jozsef also provided much-needed help with translation.

Greek Catholic Bishop Abel Szocska, O.S.B.M., of Nyiregyhaza says the seminarians were a reassuring presence at the center. The bishop spent as much time as possible at the border in the first weeks of the war, speaking with refugees and encouraging his staff and seminarians. He, too, was born and raised in Transcarpathia, parts of which prior to World War II were either in Hungary or present-day Slovakia.

“When war broke out, we immediately organized centers and places throughout our eparchy to accept refugees and donation centers,” he reports.

“We can imagine the experiences of these people and their fear,” he

continues. “At first, they didn’t trust the Caritas center, but we had seminarians who could speak Ukrainian. They were wearing cassocks, and the people said, ‘Okay, he’s a man of the church. We can trust him.’ ”

In addition to recording the people’s names and basic demographics, the Caritas center provided refugees with food, showers, hygiene products and a place to sleep for a few hours — or a few days — until family or friends in Hungary or abroad could pick them up. Some people showed up unexpectedly to volunteer to take refugees to their countries.

“Unfortunately, we heard news of people with bad intentions taking women and children away,” says Tamas, referring to reports of an increase in abductions and human trafficking amid the refugee crisis.

“We registered the names, license numbers and license plates of those who picked up the refugees, so if anything happened, we could at least offer some help to the authorities,” he adds.

In cases when refugees did not have family to pick them up or the

Andriy and Halyna Khavana, seated, chat with Ildiko Kovacsne Tamas, who has provided free accommodations to Ukrainian refugees at her guesthouse since March.

means to continue on from Barabas, Caritas staff drove them to major cities for long-term accommodations.

In Nyiregyhaza, for instance, Caritas provided more than 70 refugees with housing, food, clothing, bedding and medicine. It collaborated with the Greek Catholic elementary schools in Nyiregyhaza and Mariapocs to open Ukrainian-language classrooms for refugee children. Caritas Hungary also established a special fund to provide refugee families with food vouchers and to cover 80 percent of their rent.

“The difficulty of this situation is that these people are waiting,” says Tamas. “Everyone is waiting, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. With an earthquake, a flood, a catastrophe, we can tell when it’s going to end, but no one knows when this war is going to end.”

“We have nothing left. We will need to start from the beginning, from nothing and begin life again.”

The Reverends Ferenc Demko and Sandor Posze of Mukachevo drive 140 miles round trip weekly to fill up on supplies that Tamas at Caritas Nyiregyhaza prepares for them — water, baby formula, toilet paper, canned goods, blankets, pet food, hygiene products — depending on the need.

Caritas Nyiregyhaza continues to staff the center at Barabas, but it stopped delivery into Transcarpathia in recent months and priests seeking assistance must pick up supplies in Nyiregyhaza.

At the border crossing with Ukraine, a border agent asks to inspect some paperwork and the minivan’s cargo. Father Sandor jumps out from the driver’s side to open the hatch. It is a 15-minute wait. A few boxes are shuffled and the guard gives the priests permission to proceed to the next check point a few yards ahead, where a young border agent asks a few more questions before the priests can continue on their way.

They unload the supplies at a storehouse situated in what looks like an industrial park in Petrovo, Ukraine. Both priests serve Hungarian-language Greek Catholic parishes nearby. The grounds are littered with strewn artifacts and vehicles reminiscent of the communist era.

The van unloaded, Father Ferenc recounts the first days and weeks of the war, when priests and parishioners sprang quickly into action, offering sandwiches, hot tea and blankets to those waiting in the bitter cold in long lines at the border crossing. The priests were in constant touch with the Caritas center in Barabas during that time, receiving supply deliveries as needed.

With the escalation of the war, the local church began to organize and Greek Catholic Bishop Nil Luschak, O.F.M., who administers the Eparchy of Mukachevo, asked all priests to open the parish rectories, schools

and church buildings to accommodate the internally displaced.

While a large number of Ukrainians who traveled to Transcarpathia in the first weeks of the war left for another country, says Father Ferenc, those without the means to continue westward have remained.

“Many of them still live in properties of the Greek Catholic Church and many of them work in shops or as day laborers because they don’t want to live off of others,” he says.

As well, not all of the school-aged children displaced within his deanery are in school. “Some villages don’t have schools and some parents are afraid to send their children to school in a strange environment,” he explains.

Pastoral work has increased, but pastoral assistance has not, he continues.

“The people come not just with huge physical burdens, but spiritual burdens,” he says, adding that many displaced families have had their homes destroyed and have nothing to go back to.

He has baptized some of the babies born to these families, and a handful of families attend liturgy at his church, even though they do not understand Hungarian.

Father Ferenc shares how he was profoundly affected by the serious needs he saw among displaced families when he distributed 1,500 hams at Easter.

“St. Paul said it’s a much better thing to give than to receive and I experienced how little things we give can make such a difference,” he says.

“I realized just how good-hearted God is toward us,” he adds, expressing gratitude for the safety and health of his own family.

“We should be grateful we are not the ones who receive, but the ones who can give.”

Award-winning journalist Laura Ieraci is assistant editor of ONE.

Reassuring Presence

Egypt’s Catholic schools bolster the vulnerable text by

Magdy Samaan with photographs by Hanaa Habib

Grief-stricken by the death of her only son, Mona Fouad Massoud decided she no longer wanted to run Al Phara’na School in Ezbet el Nakhl, north of Cairo. So, in 2016, she announced her intention to sell and retire.

Parents expressed great concern that the private school would deteriorate under new ownership, but their concern did not last long. After a few months, the Coptic Catholic Sisters of Jesus and Mary came visiting as potential administrators.

“When the nuns were present, the people began to be reassured,” says Mrs. Massoud. “The presence of nuns in their habits, in a place where there are a large number of Christians, gave parents the reassurance that things will go well.”

The sisters purchased the school from Mrs. Massoud in 2017 and renamed it Notre Dame des Apôtres (Our Lady of the Apostles).

“It was divine intervention,” says Sister Lucy Ramzi Yacoub. “We were looking at the time to establish a new school when we found out by chance that there was a private school whose owner wanted to sell.”

Ezbet el Nakhl is an overcrowded working-class neighborhood with poor infrastructure. The name means “Hamlet of Palm Trees.” Until the mid-1980s, it was a small neighborhood surrounded by agricultural land, mostly farms of palm trees. But things turned upside down in 1989, when a new subway line connected the neighborhood with downtown Cairo.

The cheap, 30-minute public transit ride into the capital and inexpensive housing prices at the time contributed to rapid

Students at Notre Dame des Apôtres School in a Cairo suburb start their day by gathering in the school atrium.

construction in Ezbet el Nakhl.

Palm trees were cut down, farms were bulldozed, and the land was converted into a jungle of multistory apartment buildings and narrow streets. The homes became inhabited by poor migrants seeking work, mainly Christians fleeing interreligious violence in Upper Egypt.

The rapid growth of the population — now estimated at 1 million — was not matched by a similar pace in government services, as most buildings were built in contravention of the building codes. Sections of the neighborhood turned into slums.

The need was great and local residents stepped in to bridge the gap. During this time, more than 27 private schools were established. Mrs. Massoud and her husband, Shaker Iskandar, were among those who took initiative, establishing their school early in the urbanization process in 1988.

Located down a narrow road, off of a busy, bumpy street dotted with shops, Notre Dame des Apôtres School looks like a four-story apartment complex from the outside. Its two buildings — one for the preschool and elementary school and one for the middle school — are connected through a corridor. The school’s 150 teachers and 30 support staff serve 2,000 students divided into 55 classes, that is, five classes for each grade.

The school receives more than 400 applications each year for its kindergarten, which only has room for 160 students, says Sister Lucy, adding that tuition ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$250), depending on the grade.

“With the high cost of living, some families are unable to continue paying tuition, especially since many parents are losing their

“The fact that a child’s parents are not educated does not mean that he should not have the opportunity for a good education.”

The CNEWA Connection

At left, top and bottom, students at Don Bosco School in Alexandria wear different colored shirts according to their grade. At right, Sister Mary Rosette Abdo chats with students of Notre Dame des Apôtres School.

jobs these days. We stand by them,” says Sister Lucy.

Almost 10 percent of students are either fully or partially exempt from paying tuition, she explains. The school also accepts girls from an orphanage of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In an arrangement made during Mrs. Massoud’s management of the school — which the sisters agreed to continue — the Coptic Orthodox Church and the school each cover half of the cost of tuition for these girls.

Mariam Wagih is among the orphans who graduated from Notre Dame des Apôtres. She ranked among the top 100 high school graduates in Egypt and is now studying English and Italian in the faculty of languages at Ain Shams University in Cairo. The education she received at Notre Dame helped her to excel at university, she says.

“I didn’t need to go to a private tutor as most students do because the teachers in the school do their best.”

When the Coptic Sisters of Jesus and Mary took over the school, they asked Mrs. Massoud to assist with the transition and to stay on as an associate director for a year or two.

“When the time came for me to leave, I felt like I was losing one of my children,” she says. So, when the sisters asked her to consider remaining as associate director, she did.

Sister Mary Rosette Abdo is the school’s director. She sits at a small desk she moved into the director’s office, placed beside the larger desk occupied by Mrs. Massoud. Sisters Adele Alfy and Youstina Isaac also assist Sister Mary Rosette.

The Coptic Catholic population in Egypt is small, but mighty. As CNEWA’s primary partner in Egypt, the church provides social services to all members of society, ensuring educational, medical and psychological needs are met, especially for the most vulnerable segments of society, such as those with special needs, refugees and displaced families. Notre Dame and Don Bosco schools are but two examples of the good work of the Coptic Catholic community for the common good, and why CNEWA is eager to support their activities.

To support this important mission, call 1-866-322-4441 (Canada) or 1-800-442-6392 (United States).

Since her profession as a vowed religious 25 years ago, Sister Mary Rosette has served in Notre Dame schools in Fayoum, a city southwest of Cairo, and in Ahmed Said and Sharabeya, two Cairo neighborhoods. She began her service in Ezbet el Nakhl in 2017.

“When the order asked me to take charge of the school, I felt like Jesus in Gethsemane, because the school is big and the responsibility is huge,” she says.

The Coptic Sisters of Jesus and Mary were founded in 1969, when 16 members of the Congregation of the Egyptian Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus decided to establish a new community. They began their teaching apostolate at a school in Fayoum. Today, 60 sisters work in 12 schools, as well as in orphanages and dispensaries.

Notre Dame is one of 170 schools affiliated with the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools in Egypt. These schools are known to provide quality education, which has become indispensable to many lower- to middle-class families given the decline in the quality of free public education and the high cost of private schools.

Although many Catholic schools are located in poor and middle-class neighborhoods, Ezbet el Nakhl presents a particular challenge.

“The residents of Ezbet el Nakhl come from different parts and cultures of Egypt” and many have minimal education, says Mrs. Massoud. “These different backgrounds make it more difficult. You need to talk to and treat each person in a way they understand.” Since they purchased the school, the sisters have been working

to bring it up to par with their other schools, both in terms of activities and in-class resources, such as television screens and computers, which would allow the school to keep pace with current teaching methods and the demands of technology, says Sister Lucy.

However, the sisters’ efforts to date have made a significant difference already, says Malak Marzouk. The 14-year-old middle school student won a national drawing competition among school children on the theme of climate change. The winning art pieces were displayed at the Climate

Change Conference COP27, hosted in Egypt, from 6 to 18 November. As part of her prize, Ms. Marzouk traveled 316 miles to Sharm el Sheikh, located on the Red Sea, to be present at the global summit.

“Before the sisters came, the school did not pay much attention to drawing class,” says Ms. Marzouk, adding she had no idea she was talented at drawing until the sisters began the various activities. “The nuns honor the talented children and encourage them.”

Don Bosco School in Alexandria is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a congregation founded in 1859 to educate and care for poor children. Established in 1896 in Karmus, today a working-class neighborhood in Alexandria, Don Bosco school is the Salesians’ first school in Egypt and one of the oldest Catholic schools in the country.

Father Jesudos Arokiam, a Salesian priest, served at Don Bosco Schools in Bethlehem and Nazareth before starting as the director in Alexandria in 2018. The school compound,

Malak Marzouk, 14, of Notre Dame des Apôtres School won a national drawing competition and the opportunity to attend the COP27 Climate Conference in November.

located on a busy city block, has two sections. The first section is for the elementary and middle schools, totaling 1,115 students. There are two classes for each grade. Both schools are under the authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Education and students learn in Arabic.

The second section houses a four-year vocational school under the jurisdiction of the Embassy of Italy. Here, students are trained as electricians or machinists and classes are taught in Italian.

Annual tuition for the elementary and middle schools is about 9,000 Egyptian pounds ($390), among the lowest for private schools. However, since 2020, even this amount has been beyond the capacity of some families, whose economic situations were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite providing tuition assistance, Father Arokiam says the recent increase in the cost of living resulted in 120 students transferring to public schools this past year.

Unlike most private schools that require a parent to have a certain level of education or social status as a condition for a child to be considered for admission, Don Bosco School accepts students based only on whether they pass the admission test.

“The fact that a child’s parents are not educated does not mean that he should not have the opportunity for a good education,” says Father Arokiam.

The school also works to provide students with a contemporary inclass experience and learning environment, suited to their needs. CNEWA’s benefactors contributed to the installation of television screens in the classrooms, which has improved student performance.

Marwa el-Sayed Mustafa, an Arabic teacher at the elementary school, says the television in the classroom has helped her tremendously with her teaching.

“This generation is different from previous generations,” she says. “Communications technology captures their attention, and when something is shown to them on a screen, their comprehension increases compared with traditional teaching methods.”

Two of the most important features that students and parents alike appreciate about Don Bosco School, as well as Notre Dame des Apôtres, are the respectful treatment of children and the absence of corporal punishment, still commonly used in schools in Egypt as a disciplinary measure.

“If we make a mistake, the teacher writes what someone did wrong in a notebook, so his parents may read it later,” says Youhana Ayyad, a third-year middle school student at Don Bosco School. “If the student continues his behavior, the school calls his parents to discuss the cause of the problem to solve it.”

Father Arokiam says all Don Bosco schools, in Egypt and elsewhere, follow the same “Preventive System” developed by St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian congregation, in the way they relate to children. It is based on three pillars — reason, religion and kindness — that guide their approach to teaching and raising children and young people in the moral life, the priest explains.

“St. John Bosco taught us to cooperate with young people with respect and love,” says Father Arokiam.

“Don Bosco School is known for its service to people, especially in working-class areas. People here respect the place because they see our work.”

Based in Cairo, Magdy Samaan is the Egypt correspondent for The Times of London. His work also has been published in the Daily Telegraph, CNN, Foreign Policy and other journals.

The Last Word: Perspectives From the President

by Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari

“At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me … See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.’ ” (Mt 18:1-5,10)

This edition of ONE features just a few examples of CNEWA’s abiding commitment to children. In late September, when I visited the Little Prince program for children in Artashat, Armenia, my colleagues and I experienced your support for our work through Caritas Armenia.

You are probably reading this column after the Christmas season, but the memories of our time spent in prayer and reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation during Advent and Christmas nevertheless remain vivid:

“The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14). God entered the world he created, becoming one with it! As I have stated on many occasions, because of the Incarnation, our perspective, our work (often called our political theology, which is never to be confused with partisan politics) must always engage God’s grace in the transformation, elevation and restoration of God’s creation. CNEWA’s fundamental Gospel mandate, which we live out among the Eastern churches, seeks to accompany the local church and to respond to all human needs, especially in emergency situations.

As we reconsider the birth of Jesus, his childhood and his youth, let us consider CNEWA’s commitment to the care of children through a wide array of initiatives that have been integral to our mission for nearly a century. In the midst of a consumerist, throwaway culture, which at its extreme treats women and children as commodities to be trafficked — truly, a crime against humanity — CNEWA remains steadfast in its commitment to the defense of all children and the promotion of the best conditions for their genuine growth within their families, the church and society.

This work is possible thanks to your prayers and your generosity. You have journeyed with us. You make this possible!

In Ukraine and neighboring countries, we work to provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainian children who have fled war. At the Kidane Meheret Children’s Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, CNEWA collaborates with the Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus among poor and abandoned children, including those with H.I.V./AIDS. Just south of Addis Ababa, in Meki, the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians at Kidane Meheret Girls Hostel offer girls the opportunity to recover — physically, emotionally and spiritually — from horrific forms of abuse and to complete their education and prepare for the next chapter in their lives.

In Egypt, child care programs offered by the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Congregation of Jesus and Mary offer a sound education and a sure foundation for Christian and non-Christian children alike.

Beyond the magazine, as we anticipate our programs and budgets for 2023, our commitment to the care of children in need continues. This includes support for emergency supplementary food and sanitary supplies for children living in church-run facilities in Eritrea, which has now completed its nationalization of Catholic schools. Our support for emergency food programs, along with basic educational necessities, will increase in Ethiopia as it suffers food shortages due to the war in Ukraine, civil strife and drought.

In India, CNEWA remains committed to those young women and men in formation as novices and seminarians just as it remains in compliance with changes in Indian law.

In Jordan, we continue our support for Iraqi and Syrian refugee children — who with their families have fled their homelands for the security offered by the Hashemite Kingdom — as well as the health care of mothers and

infants at the Mother of Mercy Clinic in Zerqa. The child care initiatives of the church in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria remain central to our concerns. We visited a number of schools in northern Iraq last year reconstructed after the devastation incurred at the hands of ISIS.

And as always, CNEWA’s outreach to the children of Israel and Palestine — which includes support for those who cannot hear, enrolled at the Ephpheta Paul VI Institute in Bethlehem, as well as the mother and child clinics of the Near East Council of Churches in Gaza — remain dear.

The programs cited here all attest to CNEWA’s ongoing commitment to child care on multiple levels throughout the regions we serve with humility and gratitude. This is possible thanks to your desire and your willingness to journey with us in prayer, to be well informed, to give sacrificially and to share the CNEWA story in many ways.

Thank you for your prayers!

As we approach the end of the year, I appeal to you to do whatever is within your means to increase your sacrificial giving. Please! The demands on our budget are great. We would like to increase our assistance to the children, but we can only do this with your financial support. Permit me to invite you to a greater awareness of our mission and our work.

• Become more familiar with CNEWA’s website: www. cnewa.org

• Watch our live monthly program, “Connections With Msgr. Peter.” Next shows: 11 January, 8 February and 8 March at 2 p.m. (ET).

Be assured of my prayers. Please pray for me and the mission of CNEWA. And thank you. Let us pray together that, as we reflect on the Incarnation, we will take to heart the message of Jesus, the child of Bethlehem, and “turn and become like children.” It is nothing less than the condition for our entrance into the kingdom of heaven!

With my gratitude and prayers, Peter I. Vaccari President, CNEWA

CNEWA a papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support

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