January 30, 2015
photo: Tiziana Cauli/IOCC
Baltimore, MD (IOCC) — Snow and frigid cold blanket Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where nearly 400,000 Syrian refugees living in vinyl tents with packed dirt floors struggle to clear snow and stay warm. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than 100 tents have caved under the weight of heavy snow, and many others face the threat of their only shelter collapsing.
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is helping those in greatest need cope this winter with the distribution of heating stoves and fuel vouchers to 550 refugee families and vulnerable Lebanese families. Since 2012, IOCC has provided humanitarian relief to more than 2.4 million Syrian people living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Armenia, and to Syrians displaced in their own country by the prolonged civil conflict.
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES
IOCC is the official humanitarian aid agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. Since its inception in 1992, IOCC has delivered nearly $500 million in relief and development programs to families and communities in more than 50 countries. IOCC is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of 130 churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian assistance and advocacy, and a member of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.–based secular and faith-based organizations working to improve the lives of the world’s most poor and vulnerable populations. To learn more about IOCC, visit iocc.org.
