IOCC announces a new, long-term, opportunity for volunteers to help people affected by disasters in the US.

Multimillion-Dollar Funding Will Benefit Displaced Persons, Refugees

Partnership Provides Emergency Assistance

Throughout the year since Hurricane Ida hit the Louisiana coast, IOCC has had teams on the ground in St. Charles Parish.

Volunteers are cycling across the US this month to support the humanitarian mission of IOCC.

IOCC is working in Ukraine to distribute thousands of food parcels to displaced families.

IOCC has launched a campaign to raise at least $1 million dollars in private donations to support this work.

Orthodox Agency Enters Third Decade of Worldwide Humanitarian and Development Assistance

Foundations Give Matching Challenge Grants for Greece

Orthodox Parishes across US Join Common Cause of Humanitarian Aid

IOCC accepts donations of unwanted cars, trucks, RVs, boats, and other vehicles.

New Reflections, Inspiring Stories Address Children, Adults, Sunday Schools

IOCC is urging supporters to plan how they and their families will respond in a natural disaster, whatever form it may take.

IOCC shares with the WCC a focus on diakonia, or service, with both groups citing Christ's call.

IOCC Co-Founder’s $100,000 Gift Builds Momentum for Humanitarian Work in Greece

John G. Rangos Charitable Foundation Inspires Additional Donations

Proceeds will support ongoing humanitarian and development work overseas and in the US.

In preparation for Pascha, the booklet offers encouragement along the journey to the Church’s greatest feast.

Care Calls and Care Compass tools are proving to be adaptable resources in crises.

Serv-X-Treme is IOCC’s youth program, designed to explore the Orthodox idea of service.

IOCC is offering ways to share while helping people in need.

IOCC Sunday offers parishes a forum for highlighting Orthodox philanthropy and joining IOCC’s endeavors.

Mrs. Boulanger is the first woman elected Chairman of the Board of IOCC.

Supporters are gearing up to bike the course of their choice on Saturday, 9/26/20.

IOCC responds to Lebanon blast with emergency assistance.

IOCC is holding its first ever Virtual 5K on Saturday, June 27, 2020.

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of
the U.S.A., express concern and sorrow for the recent unrest.

In response to the pandemic in the United States, IOCC has launched a new initiative.

A booklet of spiritual reflections for the Lenten season.

Over 280 young adults in Gaza received their diplomas thanks to IOCC.

The youth of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta recently met the challenge set for them.

IOCC offers year-round assistance that helps millions each year make a fresh start.

IOCC is offering gift-givers ways to share with loved ones while helping people in need

Partnering with clergy and volunteers, IOCC celebrates “IOCC Sunday: A Day of Sharing”

Dream Centers offer Children, Families Safe Spaces, Support Overcoming Trauma

IOCC is set to release the newest edition of its prayer journal, an inspirational publication.

Through training with IOCC, Orthodox parishes undertake disaster preparedness planning.

IOCC has renewed its far-reaching Give for Greece program, including a pilot program in vocational training.

IOCC Expand Health Services in Rural Areas

Opportunity, Renewal in Western Balkans as Local Businesses Grow

Orthodox Christian Aid Org Offers Emergency Assistance, Support near Omaha

Staffers Offer Perspectives on Vocation of Service to Others

Vocational Training, Supplies Offer Path for Women to Earn Reliable Income

IOCC awarded grants to help communities recover after Hurricane Michael

IOCC's Gift Catalog Offers Gift-Giving for Humanitarian and Development Work

San Antonio Area Foundation executive accepts archdiocese’s highest honor

IOCC Adds School Supplies, Household Goods to Fire-Recovery Assistance

Emotional and spiritual care and needs assessment evaluations are under way in Winston-Salem, Wilmington.

IOCC Staff, volunteers, and equipment are staging for rapid response.

As flames die down, Orthodox humanitarian agency mobilizes to assess, meet needs in East Africa.

IOCC deploys emergency teams to clear homes of debris in the Baltimore Metro area.

Donors give over $1.2 million to aid families in Greece

IOCC is implementing services for people with disabilities in Azraq refugee camp, Jordan.

Orthodox Christian humanitarian agency offers basics of healthy living to those in need

Gifts show positive impact of support for IOCC's worldwide programming.

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America supports IOCC’s ongoing response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Fr. Thomas Paris to receive award for outstanding service supporting IOCC's humanitarian work.

The Jaharis Family Foundation announces new $1 million challenge gift.

IOCC is closely monitoring the continuing flooding and aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Staff members remain in contact with partners to provide support as needed.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) today announced the signing of a new agreement with long-time partner the St. Nektarios Education Fund of Loveland, Colorado to expand their joint efforts to provide education and clean water to children in Uganda.

After six years of conflict, IOCC is urging continued support for programs to meet the needs of Syrian children and adolescents who face food insecurity, lack access to education, and bear deep psychological scars.

“We didn’t have much money. We were in desperate need of assistance,” said Musa, a 50-year-old father of four in Jordan who was anxious to find a source of income to support his family after he lost his civil service job.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to a swath of destruction from Haiti to North Carolina left in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Food, cleaning supplies and other humanitarian assistance is being offered to families recovering from the deadly storm.

As Hurricane Matthew pummels the Florida coast with 100-mile-per-hour winds and powerful storm surges that threaten families along the Florida, Georgia and Carolinas coastal cities, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is monitoring the rapidly evolving situation and stands ready to respond with humanitarian relief.

More than two dozen high school seniors from eight Orthodox Christian jurisdictions across the US participated in the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) third annual Serv-X-Treme! Youth Leadership Conference in Minneapolis this summer.

Responding to the urgent needs of an estimated 65,000 people who were displaced from their homes by clashes in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakeh, IOCC is providing families sheltering in schools outside the city with food, hygiene kits and household items.

Two million people in Aleppo, Syria have no access to running water after intensified fighting in the city damaged electrical networks needed to pump water into family homes.

IOCC is on the ground in Louisiana providing support to victims of catastrophic flooding that has engulfed much of southern Louisiana, claimed 13 lives and forced more than 30,000 people from their flooded homes.

Severe summer weather is leaving behind a path of destruction across the US, from flash floods in West Virginia to wind damage from tornadoes and flooding in Minnesota.

As torrential rain pummeled parts of West Virginia and threatened a new round of flooding, 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.

Syria's civil war has created the greatest refugee upheaval since WWII, with 4.8 million Syrian men, women and children fleeing their homeland in search of refuge in other countries across the Middle East and Europe.

IOCC hosted one-day youth basketball and mentoring clinics to provide a fun, sports-focused environment and to reinforce healthy lifestyles and substance abuse prevention.

IOCC is supporting new ways to improve water access for the world's most vulnerable families and communities.

IOCC is working to reduce rising unemployment in Gaza

Volunteers from St. Louis clean out homes damaged by flooding.

IOCC responds to devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Winston.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to the urgent need for medical assistance in Syria. The number of injured people continues ...

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to the urgent needs of families in Ethiopia suffering through the most severe drought in 30 years.

IOCC to begin mobilizing volunteers desperately needed for cleanup

IOCC is preparing relief for survivors of severe weather across the country.

IOCC is working to alleviate suffering caused by widespread drought conditions in southern and eastern regions of Ethiopia.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of migrants in Greece turned back at the border.

IOCC is responding with building supplies and other necessities to survivors on one of the hardest hit islands in the Bahamas.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of survivors from a deadly 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of India.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of vulnerable refugees with food assistance and helping ease some of the strain on Greece's refugee relief efforts.

IOCC Emergency Response Network, along with local relief partners, are rallying together to help residents in hard hit Columbia.

IOCC has been in contact with Orthodox Church parishes in the most impacted areas of Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Florence, South Carolina.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of the Ukraine conflict's most vulnerable victims with emergency food assistance

Participants strengthened their understanding of Christ-centered service and Orthodox Christian philanthropy through theoretical and hands-on service activities at the week-long gatherings.

IOCC is improving access to clean water for Syrian refugees living in Lebanon.

IOCC has had a humanitarian presence in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza since 1997, to help vulnerable groups-particularly women, children, youth and the elderly – improve their lives in times of conflict and increased isolation.

Archbishop Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas welcomed Patriarch John X of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East and Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America to a luncheon with the IOCC Board of Directors.

IOCC is on the ground responding to the urgent needs of the Syrian refugees in southern Serbia.

IOCC is expanding its relief efforts to the country's growing number of people in need.

IOCC is responding to the dire needs of the refugees by improving poor hygiene and health conditions in the crowded reception centers.

IOCC is providing immediate assistance to families affected by the flooding, including food, essential non-food items, and more.

IOCC is helping more than 1000 Assyrian refugee children continue their school studies in Lebanon.

In the midst of continuing severe weather, increasing floodwaters, and a rising number of fatalities in Texas and Oklahoma, IOCC is working with Orthodox Frontliners and parishes as well as ecumenical partners to assess a coordinated response.

IOCC's ongoing assistance has helped thousands of survivors return to their homes and resume their lives.

IOCC is in contact with the Orthodox parishes in the affected area and is monitoring the situation with its ecumenical partners in order to determine the best course of action

IOCC was awarded the 2015 Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Award for Excellence recently at the annual Leadership 100 Conference held in Orlando, Florida.

IOCC is delivering financial assistance to provide critically needed humanitarian relief to survivors of this devastating quake.

IOCC is working with relief partners on the ground in Nepal to assess the immediate humanitarian needs and provide support for emergency relief.

IOCC is assessing the urgent needs of displaced families that managed to escape, and is prepared to provide for clothing, hygiene kits, medical services, and psychosocial support for those in need.

IOCC, working in partnership with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (GOPA), is providing emergency medical assistance, hygiene kits, and personal care items to displaced Idlib families who have fled to the Syrian port city of Lattakia.

When Superstorm Sandy obliterated entire neighborhoods along New York's and New Jersey's shorelines, St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church in Toms River, New Jersey, stood ready to weather the storm and its aftermath.

IOCC, in cooperation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC), is responding with efforts to stem the spread of disease.

IOCC/GOPA is responding to the immediate needs of more than 1,000 displaced Syrian families seeking shelter.

IOCC is responding to this urgent and most basic need with water delivery to 20 large refillable water storage tanks installed in the affected communities.

IOCC is helping Greek families in search of work and opportunities in agriculture-related businesses.

Seminary students join the IOCC Orthodox Action team in rebuilding homes damaged by natural disaster.

IOCC is helping those in greatest need cope this winter with the distribution of heating stoves and fuel vouchers.

IOCC is responding with the distribution of handmade sweater sets for 600 children crafted last summer by 34 displaced Syrian women taught to knit through a cash-for-work program.

"We are very excited to become a member of the national VOAD and take our place alongside colleagues active in disaster response and recovery in our country."

Long-time board member and past treasurer, Mark D. Stavropoulos of Troy, Michigan, was named the new chairman of the board of directors for IOCC.

IOCC has embarked on a strategic campaign to educate Congressional leaders on the organization's expanding humanitarian programs, and to urge continued support for key international development efforts.

Team IOCC raised nearly $25,000 to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to families displaced by war, overcoming natural disasters or working their way out of poverty.

More than $773,000 in new books and reading materials were distributed by IOCC recently to children participating in tutoring, after school and early childhood education programs.

Emergency food parcels are being distributed to 700 flood victims from the hard hit communities of Wazirabad and Hafizabad in the Punjab province, home to more than half of Pakistan's people.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of Pakistan's most vulnerable survivors with emergency relief to flood-ravaged areas.

The Emergency Response Network (ERN), also known as the "Orthodox Frontline", is comprised of more than 100 highly trained, credentialed and experienced emergency response personnel who nimbly assist communities and Orthodox parishioners in times of crisis.

IOCC is fostering the philanthropic spirit among Orthodox youth with the launch of its inaugural Serv-X-Treme! Youth Leadership Conference.

IOCC is assisting families living in remote villages by providing them with home repair kits containing construction materials and tools to help restore their homes back to a safe and livable condition.

IOCC has had a humanitarian presence in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza since 1997, assisting more than 30,000 families.

IOCC is appealing for support to provide aid to families in urgent need of basic food and humanitarian supplies in the Gaza Strip.

IOCC is working to ease the harsh living conditions for vulnerable Syrian refugee families.

IOCC is improving access to learning for Uganda's youth.

IOCC has screened more than 13,000 Syrian refugee children for malnutrition and provided treatment to those in need of emergency nutrition.

IOCC is in Gaza, assessing the emerging humanitarian needs of those caught in the conflict.

IOCC has mobilized to respond to the emergency needs of flood survivors in the region.

His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East has called for an international gathering of Orthodox Christian community leaders to join him for an ecclesial conference to address global Antiochian unity.

IOCC is providing a grant to support the organization's humanitarian work with women, children, farmers, youth, and disabled people from communities in need like Annathur.

IOCC is responding to the struggles of flood survivors with assistance to help get families back to their homes and their livelihoods.

The IOCC Emergency Response Network, or Frontline, is a volunteer network of highly trained, credentialed and experienced Orthodox clergy and laity who respond to man-made and natural disasters in the United States.

IOCC is working closely with local relief partner to reach remote rural areas and distribute emergency relief items such as drinking water, hygiene items, and household supplies to isolated elderly and families with small children.

IOCC is providing transportation support and quilts for evacuees being transferred to temporary shelters.

IOCC has staff on the ground in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ready to assess the most urgent needs of the flood survivors.

Religious leaders gathered at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Chicago to dedicate more than 10,000 new books provided by International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC)

The powerful spring storms that spawned a cluster of damaging tornadoes this past week have affected the lives of millions of people across the South.

IOCC is providing support for families in need from the Sorsogon Province of Luzon Island through a cash-for-work program to repair 36 homes in the area's hardest hit villages.

An IOCC/GOPA rapid response team has assisted 720 displaced families with emergency relief including temporary shelter at a local school.

IOCC is responding to the most dire needs of the refugees with assistance to provide sanitation facilities to curb the outbreak of disease and psychosocial support to help refugees cope with the trauma of fleeing their homes.

As the demand for safe, fresh water continues to increase around the world, IOCC is responding with efforts to improve access to clean and safe water and sanitation for those in need.

IOCC's community kitchen in Lebanon provides food and jobs for Syrian refugee families.

IOCC is continuing its work through ongoing initiatives to help these vulnerable families improve their farming techniques, raise their household incomes, and improve the learning environment for their children.

IOCC is responding to the growing health crisis by providing assistance to nearly 1,000 displaced Syrian people with medical needs.

IOCC is providing dozens of families in the town of Sorsogon with food and assistance to repair and reconstruct their homes.

IOCC/GOPA responded to the immediate needs of more than 400 evacuees at temporary shelters in the Al Ghouta neighborhood of Homs and in Waer.

Syrian civilians evacuated from the embattled city of Homs under a UN-negotiated cease-fire are being aided by International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) as they flee to safety.

Warm winter clothing is a welcome sight to Manal, 5, whose family lost everything when rocket fire struck their home in Homs, Syria, and burned it to the ground.

IOCC is providing services to help affected families overcome their traumatic experiences and begin rebuilding their lives.

IOCC mourns the passing of IOCC Honorary Board Member, Dr. George Farha.

IOCC is providing winter relief with the emergency distribution of heating fuel to 35 social institutions across 15 prefectures in northern Greece.

Heavy rains on Christmas Day sent many storm survivors scrambling for shelter in a country where more than one million family homes were severely damaged or completely destroyed last month by the one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.

IOCC is responding now to the urgent needs of 900 Syrian refugee families living in Lebanon's coldest regions with the distribution of stoves and fuel for heating and cooking.

IOCC is working to end hunger among Syria's refugee children.

An Orthodox priest looks on in disbelief as a survivor of Typhoon Haiyan leads them through the remains of his home in a remote area of Leyte Province in the Philippines.

This young displaced Syrian mother of two now living in the southern city of Dara'a carries away new thick blankets and bedding provided to her by IOCC.

IOCC established the program in cooperation with local community leaders to provide employment for displaced Syrian families.

The struggle to clear roads of debris and restore the lines of communication across the Philippines is slowing relief efforts for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan.

IOCC emergency response personnel are assessing the humanitarian needs for victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which has left a trail of destruction affecting an estimated 9.8 million people.

One of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall has slammed into the Philippines, setting off landslides, cutting off power and communications across the country, and forcing nearly 720,000 people to evacuate.

His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece recently met with the Greek Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, to announce support for Greek hospitals with the shipment of five containers of medical supplies valued at nearly $4 million.

Dr. Rajiv Shah told a standing-room only gathering of aid workers and lawmakers that the key to eradicating extreme poverty around the world by 2030 will require enlisting broad public support to urge Congress to fund the efforts.

IOCC is improving health and hygiene conditions with access to clean water for more than 9,000 schoolchildren and teachers living in north west Cameroon.

Citing its ongoing response to the escalating humanitarian needs of millions of people affected by the civil war in Syria and the economic crisis in Greece, IOCC representatives met with Orthodox members of Congress to bring attention to the organization's rapidly expanding humanitarian and international development activities around the world.

A generation of school children is at risk as the education of Syrian youth threatens to become another casualty of the prolonged conflict.

Members of IOCC's Emergency Response Network from the Colorado area have been helping to distribute supplies and providing spiritual and emotional care to survivors.

Purchasing items with fresh food cards allows participating families to obtain important nutrition, and preserve their dignity and some sense of normalcy.

The Jaharis Family Foundation, Inc. announced a $1 million Challenge Grant to IOCC toward the expansion of its program to address the need for sustainable access to safe and nutritious food facing a rising number of people in Greece.

IOCC Frontliners are working at service centers to begin distributing relief items such as clean-up buckets and blankets as well as providing crisis counseling for Coloradans still coming to terms with the loss of loved ones and family homes.

As thousands of Coloradans begin to recover from floods triggered by a week of historically heavy rains, members of the IOCC Emergency Response Network, or Frontline, have been reaching out to communities and parishes in the impacted areas.

For centuries the Syrian town of Maaloula has been a peaceful enclave of coexistence among Christian and Muslim neighbors, and one of the few places where Aramaic, the ancient language of Christ, is still spoken.

IOCC is responding to the most urgent humanitarian needs of thousands of displaced families who have sought the relative safety of Tartous.

Twenty-two Orthodox Christians from around the country gathered to participate in training this week at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church in Greenwood Village, Colorado, to become new members of the IOCC Frontline.

As fighting continues to spread to once peaceful cities across Syria, IOCC/GOPA is responding with assistance to families still living in conflict areas.

IOCC is responding to the urgent needs of the more than 60,000 families confined to this volatile area with emergency relief including food parcels, family hygiene kits, bedding, kitchen sets, and school supplies for children.

IOCC is responding to the immediate humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees and the growing number of Jordanian families who find themselves in increasingly difficult circumstances since the arrival of the refugees.

IOCC Frontliners have been on the ground offering spiritual and emotional care to the families of the stricken, emergency personnel, and residents of the community of Prescott, Arizona where the hotshot fire team was located.

For widowed Syrian refugees who are now living in Jordan and Lebanon, IOCC is providing basic necessities like infant supplies, personal hygiene kits, quilts, bedding, housewares, clothing, food, housing assistance and healthcare.

IOCC has sent a team of its Frontline trauma counselors to assist in spiritual and emotional care as well as further assess the emerging needs for any appropriate future responses that IOCC might offer.

IOCC delivered more than $740,000 in medical supplies to Skylitsion General Hospital of Chios, which serves the medical needs of young and old.

When violent clashes suddenly erupted in his Aleppo neighborhood, Faruk, 33, his pregnant wife, Mona, and their three children left their home in Syria and the only life they had ever known to make the exhausting, 160-mile trek to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

IOCC is responding to the needs of refugee families flowing into Iraq with a distribution of urgently needed bedding and hygiene kits for more than 9,800 men, women and children in Domiz Refugee Camp in Iraq.

Recent weather-related tragedies across the US are grave reminders of the threat of natural disasters and the need for disaster preparedness.

IOCC is delivering emergency clean-up buckets, personal hygiene kits and blankets that will be distributed through the University of Oklahoma and Holy Ascension Antiochian Orthodox Church in Norman.

As survivors sift through the devastation left behind by tornadoes that ripped through central Oklahoma and claimed the lives of dozens of people including many children, please join IOCC in praying for the families and lost loved ones.

Laham has partnered with IOCC to provide tuition assistance, school supplies, tutoring and personal care kits to thousands of Iraqi refugee schoolchildren.

IOCC announced the establishment of the Katherine Valone "St. Photini" Water Program to advance projects that provide safe, healthy and reliable water resources to communities in need in Africa.

Metropolitan Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo and Metropolitan Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo were both abducted on Monday, April 22nd, near Aleppo in northern Syria.

Four Frontliners will take on the task of assessing the needs of those affected by the tragedy and providing crisis counseling at local emergency care centers set up throughout the city.

It's a big day for the youngsters at Joy Aid Foundation daycare center in Urlati, Romania.

On the same day that the Chicago Public Schools announced the closure of 54 schools, IOCC responded with a donation of $1 million in new books to benefit schoolchildren in the Chicago area.

The Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund announced its support for IOCC's efforts to strengthen the ability of the US Orthodox community to respond to future disasters and needs within the country.

IOCC mourns the passing of co-founder and past Chairman of the Board, Andrew A. Athens.

IOCC is working to help protect the well-being of displaced Syrian mothers and infants by providing prenatal care for expectant mothers, providing access to hospital deliveries, and following up with post-natal care.

IOCC is directing its latest relief to the country's ailing healthcare system with a shipment of more than $650,000 in medical supplies destined for northern Greece's largest regional hospital.

IOCC is providing the emergency distribution of heating fuel to 30 social institutions located in Athens, the Viotia region of central Greece, and across 14 provinces in northern Greece.

IOCC is constructing a new secondary school to accommodate 240 students living in the Lwemiyaga region of Uganda.

IOCC is working to meet the needs of vulnerable women with the distribution of special personal care kits filled with important basics.

Families living in areas with access to fuel but no power received diesel stoves, while families facing fuel shortages but still have electricity received electric heaters.

IOCC joins with all Orthodox Christians and Americans in mourning the senseless loss of lives in yesterday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

More than 80 representatives of the nation's Orthodox Christian service organizations joined together at the White House today to discuss strategic service alliances with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

IOCC recently provided new school uniforms to 6,000 school-aged refugee girls living in the camp and in Jordanian host communities.

IOCC is responding to the country's escalating healthcare crisis with the delivery of more than $1.3 million in medical supplies and walking aids to pediatric hospitals in Athens and public general hospitals on the island of Crete.

IOCC is on the ground in Gaza, assessing the most urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian families caught in the conflict.

Two weeks after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast and obliterated entire neighborhoods along New York's and New Jersey's shorelines, IOCC remains on the ground supporting cleanup and recovery efforts of Orthodox parishes in the affected areas.

IOCC has been working to address the needs of Greek children, families and elderly who face the loss of critical social support as a result of the debt crisis and austerity measures.

IOCC is mobilizing its resources to support the response efforts of Orthodox Christian parishes in the affected areas and relief partners in the storm-ravaged region.

IOCC has deployed members of its Emergency Response Network to a Disaster Recovery Center in Maryland to provide trauma counseling to survivors of Hurricane Sandy.

IOCC is working in partnership with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (GOPA) to respond to the urgent needs of thousands of internally displaced Syrian families.

IOCC is providing an emergency grant to help an institution continue the lifesaving work it is doing in the West Bank.

IOCC is providing psychosocial support to help these distressed families cope with their uncertain situations.

IOCC will help replenish the storerooms of all hospitals in Crete with a container of more than $675,000 in medical equipment, surgical supplies, and walking aids such as crutches and walkers.

IOCC Jordan is working with local churches and relief partners to provide basic necessities like diapers, baby blankets and infant clothing to Syrian mothers seeking shelter at Za'atri refugee camp, where 60 percent of the 28,000 refugees are small children and infants.

Tropical storm Isaac's unleashing of wind and water on Haiti last Saturday left more than two dozen people dead, washed away precious food crops, and destroyed the tents that still house hundreds of thousands of survivors of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

IOCC is in contact with the Orthodox Dioceses that have parishes in the predicted affected areas, members of the IOCC Emergency Response Network, and is monitoring the situation.

Three dedicated cyclists dipped their tires into the Atlantic Ocean at Seaside Park, New Jersey, on July 31 to complete their 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast "Race to Respond" to support to the global humanitarian work of IOCC.

IOCC has redoubled its efforts to provide food and essential items – blankets, stoves and hygiene supplies – to the rapidly growing number of displaced and vulnerable Syrian families.

With unusually harsh summer conditions adding to the strenuous physical challenge, the Race to Respond team members continue to bike their way cross-country to raise support and awareness for people living in poverty and those affected by natural and man-made disasters served by IOCC.

Farmers living in the villages of five Peloponnese communities stand better prepared to protect their homes and their farms against future fires with new high-capacity water tanks, equipment and firefighting support.

Four home building teams have completed their one-week commitment, with four more summer builds and critical home repairs slated for Minneapolis, Houston, and in Minot, North Dakota.

IOCC is intensifying its current response efforts to meet the surging humanitarian needs for emergency medical aid, food and basic necessities for Syrian families displaced in their own country.

IOCC has been delivering emergency relief to disaster survivors around the world since 1992, and offers this four-point checklist to help you provide for the safety and security of yourself and your loved ones in the time of an emergency.

In the presence of more than 350 prominent Orthodox Christian faithful and friends, IOCC celebrated two decades of delivering humanitarian assistance with an Anniversary Gala in Washington D.C.

The generous gift will advance programs such as food distribution to people affected by natural disasters and emergencies, agricultural support and training for farmers, and other initiatives that provide effective and lasting solutions to hunger and life-saving nourishment.

The five visionary men were selected to receive the inaugural award for their extraordinary philanthropic contributions to the organization's mission and its continued success over the past 20 years.

IOCC is responding to the overwhelming need for medical assistance with financial support and medical supplies destined for free clinics in some of the poorest neighborhoods in greater Athens.

Hillman, whose multi-faceted musical career spans five decades, gained popular recognition as a founding member of The Byrds, one of the most influential American rock bands of the 1960s.

IOCC is taking steps to assist the growing number of Syrian families displaced throughout their country and a rising number of Syrian refugees who are arriving to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

IOCC is putting your support to work securing food aid packages for impoverished families and jobs for the unemployed.

IOCC has delivered $4 million of direct assistance in emergency food and hygiene items, school and sanitation reconstruction projects, and reforestation programs to help mitigate future natural disasters in Haiti.

IOCC is constructing the first high school in Bokolomanyo for teen refugees.

IOCC Executive Director, Constantine Triantafilou, witnessed firsthand the human toll unfolding right on the streets of Athens during his visit to Greece in December.

IOCC latest efforts include a shipment of bed linens, baby kits and quilts to vulnerable rural families living around Vitanovac, a village just a few miles away from the city of Kraljevo.

IOCC will extend its humanitarian reach with more home construction and restoration projects set for Houston and for Minneapolis, which suffered a destructive tornado last summer.

IOCC's program has expanded nationwide, culminating with an HIV/AIDS education and awareness program that has reached over 11.5 million Ethiopians.

IOCC provided assistance for the demolition of the old school severely damaged in the 2010 earthquake and the construction of a new earthquake and hurricane resistant building.

The aid packages distributed through IOCC's Winter Relief Project provided families in need with vital food staples such as canned meat, rice, sugar, and tea as well as basic household necessities like laundry detergent, dish soap, towels, and floor mats.

IOCC has partnered with International Medical Corps (IMC) to provide vital nutrition and health support to young famine victims.

Out of the ashes of 9/11 rose our Emergency Response Network, a nationwide team of 60 courageous men and women trained as early responders to bring relief to victims of disaster, whether manmade or natural.

Orthodox Christian teens gathered recently at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Baltimore to fill dozens of oversized buckets with sponges, trashbags, gloves and cleaning supplies in anticipation of Hurricane Irene.

IOCC marks World Humanitarian Day with gratitude to our many supporters whose humanitarian spirit allows us to serve the world's most vulnerable groups of people.

IOCC is taking action to improve sanitation conditions and help avert the spread of disease among the refugees.

IOCC is in Ethiopia assisting local relief partners with efforts to bring food, water and medical care to the severely malnourished famine victims, most of which are women and young children.

IOCC is rehabilitating greenhouses, digging water catchments and providing water irrigation systems.

IOCC is providing critically needed healthcare support for millions of people suffering through one of the worst droughts in history.

As more than ten million men, women and children suffer from the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years, IOCC is responding with aid to relieve victims.

More than 200 Greek farmers and family members from the Prefecture of Ileia gathered in the courtyard of the local farming resource center to hear Triantafilou praise their ongoing efforts to restore farms and revive agricultural activity.

IOCC is working to deliver relief items such as clean up buckets and blankets to victims of one of the deadliest tornado seasons to strike the US heartland in half a century.

IOCC is providing more than $350,000 in support of local community groups providing ongoing relief services to the more than 168,000 people who remain homeless following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.

Personal health kits have been shipped by IOCC to Birmingham, Alabama for survivors of recent severe storms and tornadoes.

IOCC is sending members of its Frontline to respond to the relief and recovery efforts in northern Alabama following severe storms, tornadoes and flooding.

IOCC will help provide housing for as many as 1,000 families in the Japanese prefectures hardest hit by the tsunami.

IOCC has been in contact with Orthodox Christian communities and partner organizations in several US States to assess the needs of survivors.

IOCC has extended offers of assistance to the Orthodox Church in Japan to provide essential aid, as needed, and will support efforts to provide assistance as the disaster response moves into the recovery phase.

Initial efforts by IOCC and the Orthodox Church in Japan will focus on an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people who have been displaced by the earthquake and tsunami.

IOCC has been in contact with the Holy Autonomous Orthodox Church in Japan and our ACT Alliance partners to assess the emerging needs following the massive earthquake and tsunami which devastated north eastern Japan on March 11.

IOCC has assembled its emergency response personnel to assess the humanitarian needs and possible response to a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the Pacific Ocean nearby Northeastern Japan on March 11.

IOCC is working to support relief efforts to assess the damage and the needs of the people. Emergency supplies such as water, blankets, food and other essential items are being provided for families affected by the earthquake.

The center will distribute cleaning kits and repair kits to flood victims and a mobile team will assist in cleaning and restoring homes.

A $300,000 grant from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to IOCC aims to help young families in the Prefecture of Ileia to modernize their small family farms and help them become economically viable.

Oklahoma City attorney Michael S. "Mickey" Homsey was named as the new chairman of the Board of Directors for IOCC.

The "Souper Bowl of Caring" is observed each year on Super Bowl Sunday as a way to mobilize youth to fight hunger and poverty. Young people collect monetary and food donations in their parishes and then give them directly to charities of their choice.

IOCC has provided $4 million in direct assistance to the people of Haiti since January 12, 2010.

USAID awarded $26.4 million to IOCC for a program that will improve student achievement, expand after-school programs, provide training for public school teachers and upgrade educational facilities in 600 Lebanese public schools.

Tilahun lost his brother and father to AIDS in a country where the disease has claimed the lives of millions of people and lowered the life expectancy to 48 years.

IOCC is working to assess the needs following a moderate 5.3 earthquake that claimed at least two lives and injured more than fifty people.

During a visit to Georgia, His Grace, Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) gave his blessing to the IOCC staff.

The project will help Filantropia improve the social services it provides to orphans, the elderly, families living in poverty, prisoners, the terminally ill and others in need.

IOCC has expanded its distribution of emergency supplies to flood-ravaged areas of Pakistan.

IOCC is reaching out to the people of Pakistan through direct food assistance provided by the Orthodox Church.

IOCC began providing emergency supplies this week to people affected by fires in the Ryazan region of Central Russia.

"Everyone I speak with is clearly shaken by the stark scale of this devastating flood, a natural disaster that has easily proven to be not only Pakistan's worst flood in recorded history but constitutes the worst natural disaster in the country's history."

IOCC is working with its partners in the Russian Orthodox Church to formulate an appropriate IOCC response to this latest humanitarian crisis.

IOCC has mobilized food assistance to vulnerable people in the flood affected communities of Wazirabad, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, Pakistan.

IOCC is challenging its supporters to assemble 10,000 school kits by September 2010 as part of its "Kits for Kids" campaign.

Marie and her daughter, Lovely, make a 4-hour, round trip journey each day from their home in Port-au-Prince to reach Foyer d'Amour ("House of Love"), a school for the developmentally disabled that Marie calls, "a gift from God."

The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society presented IOCC with an $80,000 check for its aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and another gift of $40,000 for IOCC projects around the world.

IOCC is delivering medical supplies to assist refugee families who have fled ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan.

Golden State Warriors Forward Vladimir Radmanović, a long time supporter of IOCC, will fund a new project to improve therapeutic and skills training for more than 1,600 disabled children and adults in Serbia.

IOCC expanded its partnership with the Ministry of Secondary Education with a shipment of new textbooks expected to arrive in the African country this summer.

IOCC is working to give hope to affected individuals by distributing shoes and providing foot hygiene training to prevent and treat this painful condition.

IOCC will once again be calling on Orthodox volunteers from throughout the United States to build homes for families whose lives were devastated by Gulf Coast hurricanes.

His Eminence, Metropolitan PHILIP (Saliba) presented a check for $150,000 to IOCC Executive Director and CEO Constantine M. Triantafilou.

John Nduna, the General Secretary of the ACT Alliance, was received by IOCC Executive Director Constantine Triantafilou at the IOCC headquarters in Baltimore, MD.

A series of bombing raids on Gaza in recent weeks as well as rocket strikes on southern Israel have raised concern regarding the possibility of escalating violence in the Holy Land and another humanitarian crisis for its people.

IOCC has delivered approximately $2.6 million in services since the middle of January. Medicines, medical equipment, water purification and sanitation equipment, tents, hygiene kits, shelter materials, fuel, food, blankets, jerry cans for water and mattresses have been shipped and distributed throughout Haiti.

The new alliance of churches and church-based humanitarian groups combines and builds on the former ACT International and its longtime disaster relief and rehabilitation focus, and the former ACT Development and its sustainable development focus.

IOCC is providing more than $350,000 in emergency health kits that contain basic medicines, consumable medical supplies for surgeries and wound care treatment.

The "Souper Bowl of Caring" utilizes Super Bowl weekend to mobilize young people to fight hunger and poverty. Young people collect monetary and food donations during the week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday and then give them directly to charities of their choice.

IOCC Senior Programs Coordinator Mark Ohanian and Fr. Antonio Perdomo arrived in Haiti this weekend to consult with Orthodox Christian communities and ecumenical partners about the on-going assistance.

The distribution of aid supplies, which began arriving to Haiti within one week of the disaster, has directly served an estimated 75,000 people.

Survivors of Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake living in temporary shelters access clean drinking water provided by IOCC.

IOCC has responded to the urgent need for medical supplies and basic medications to treat the injured and sick in Haiti with a shipment of critically-needed medicines and hospital supplies expected to assist over 45,000 Haitians.

Over the weekend an airlift of water purification and sanitation equipment for 10,000 people and 500 family tents are expected to arrive in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti had been devastated by its worst earthquake in 200 years and the ladies of Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church in a quiet suburb south of Baltimore went to work.

Water purification equipment that will serve 10,000 people and 500 family tents, as well as other supplies, are being airlifted to Haiti.

IOCC has mobilized its disaster response team and is preparing to respond to the tremendous needs in close coordination with our Orthodox and ecumenical partners.

IOCC is responding to the most devastating earthquake to hit the island nation of Haiti in 200 years.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic and civil war over the past two decades have decimated countless families in this region, leaving in their wake extreme poverty, lack of opportunities, and large families parentless and displaced from their homes.

IOCC is coordinating the delivery of hygiene kits that will assist over 3,000 survivors of Typhoons Ketsana and Parma, which struck the Philippines in late September.

IOCC is part of a coordinated international effort to bring relief to the thousands that have been displaced by Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines and the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that devastated western Sumatra in Indonesia.

IOCC is responding to a string of disasters that are affecting millions of people in the Asia Pacific region and have already taken hundreds of lives.

In partnership with the Ugandan Orthodox Church and with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan JONAH and financial support from the St. Nektarios Fund, IOCC is building a secondary school in Lapainat for about 300 students.

IOCC and its main local partner, the Georgian Orthodox Church, established support groups where members of the community can discuss their problems and art therapy sessions to help children overcome the trauma of war.

Wala’s school has received a complete science lab from International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), and that has made all the difference for Wala who dreams of becoming a surgeon or pediatrician.

IOCC recently provided a $19,000 grant to Penelope House’s Prevention Education program for grades K-12. Counselors from the shelter teach Mobile schoolchildren to cope with stress at home, learn what safety measures to take when there is violence, and know where to go for help.

In order to help people like Gaioz, IOCC has begun distributing essential food items (flour, beans, pasta, oil, sugar, and salt) to villagers in need throughout the Shida Kartli Region.

IOCC recently provided $1 million worth of audio/visual equipment and books for their new library, the only one in the neighborhood. While funding for the storm-battered Gulf Coast has tended to focus on emergency relief, IOCC is also supporting key local partners like Desire Street who focus on education and community development.

IOCC is launching a new program to increase the capacity of the Romanian Orthodox Church to effectively help Romanian communities achieve economic sustainability and overcome severe social issues.

Of the 127 families in the St. Tammany Parish area who received Habitat homes since Katrina, 100 are single working mothers. Katrina devastated them, but it also gave them the impossible: first-time home ownership at an affordable price.

Since 1992, IOCC has been helping displaced families with emergency supplies, vocational training, and assistance with returning to their homes.

IOCC plans to open a summer camp that will focus on psychosocial therapy and recreational activities for about 200 children aged 8 – 15. IOCC is also planning to reach an additional 2,000 children and youth through other forms of activities including school-based interventions.

IOCC commissioned the report in order to provide a mapping of activities of major Orthodox charitable and humanitarian organizations worldwide.

Since 2006, IOCC has been sending hundreds of Orthodox volunteers from throughout the US to help build new homes on the hurricane-battered US Gulf Coast.

IOCC, like many here in the US and abroad, has been monitoring the news about the swine flu outbreak. While the media can draw attention to an issue, it is often helpful to have other sources of information.

Volunteers are working around the clock to raise the dikes protecting the city of Fargo, N.D. from flooding. They hope to hold back the Red River which is expected to reach record high levels by Saturday.

On a rainy evening in this ancient city famed for its pistachios and historic mosques and churches, 120 Iraqi refugees gather in a church’s basement to learn about the “silent killers” of their community: diabetes and high blood pressure.

With the participation of 235 volunteers from across the country, IOCC provided $3.5 million in community development and emergency relief programs throughout the US in 2008.

The worst wildfires in Australia’s history have caused 181 confirmed deaths and left hundreds of people homeless. More than 900 houses were destroyed and some 7,000 people have requested assistance from humanitarian agencies.

IOCC will provide 6,000 families in Gaza (about 42,000 people) with food, blankets, and hygiene supplies with a new $750,000 grant from ARD Inc.

IOCC is providing fortified biscuits and milk for about 23,000 children in Gaza. IOCC expects to deliver these supplies by Saturday to the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

IOCC has released emergency funds and is working in cooperation with other humanitarian aid organizations to deliver medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to Gaza hospitals that are stretched to capacity.

IOCC will construct a soil lab to help farmers analyze the condition of their soil and water in order to determine what crops to cultivate and what kinds of fertilizers to use.

IOCC is responding to the rapidly deteriorating public health crisis in Zimbabwe which threatens to become a catastrophe unless urgently needed medicines and supplies are rushed to the growing numbers of victims.

Since we began our operations in 1992, on average, 92 cents on the dollar goes towards programming with only 8 cents spent on fundraising and administrative costs.

IOCC has been developing new and innovative ways of assisting the Peloponnese to combat wildfires during its dry, hot summers.

At a recent Vespers service at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Steelton, Pennsylvania, his Grace Bishop Irinej reminded parishioners of the words of St. John Chrysostom that “Feeding the hungry is a greater miracle than raising the dead.”

IOCC is currently hosting a special speaking tour featuring his Grace Bishop Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Australia and New Zealand.

Through a new $200,000 grant by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), IOCC is helping 2,000 individuals get through the winter by providing stoves, fuel for cooking and heating, bedding, and winter clothes.

Through a new $200,000 grant, IOCC will help 2,000 individuals get through the winter by providing stoves, fuel for cooking and heating, bedding, winter clothes, and cooking supplies.

IOCC delivered $140,000 worth of medical and hygiene supplies to the American Red Cross Auchan shelter in Houston. The supplies include such items as baby wipes, gloves, hygiene and toiletry kits, antibacterial soap and medical items.

The shipment, worth $1 million, included over-the-counter cough and cold medicines that are not available in Albania and hundreds of gloves, bandages, syringes, needles, catheters, tracheotomy tubes, and ankle and knee supports.

IOCC will provide over 200 fire shelters and train fire fighters on how to use the equipment. The fire shelters provide increased protection from radiant and convective heat and are used in wild land entrapment situations.

IOCC is issuing an emergency appeal for its continuing response with cash funds going towards immediate clean-up and recovery efforts.

His Grace Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan hosted Serb basketball stars Vlade Divac and Dragan Tarlac on a two-day visit to Kosovo.

IOCC is issuing an emergency appeal with cash funds going towards immediate clean up efforts. Orthodox faithful and parishes are encouraged to begin assembling hygiene kits and emergency clean up buckets.

IOCC distributed hygiene supplies, linen, towels, kitchen utensils, toys, baby food, and diapers. More than 155,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Georgia and South Ossetia since the conflict began.

IOCC’s latest distribution provided one-week rations of pasta, rice, buckwheat, canned fish and tea to 340 individuals who have taken shelter in a children’s summer camp near Tbilisi.

IOCC distributed emergency food and hygiene supplies to people who were displaced due to the conflict between Georgian, Russian, and South Ossetian forces.

IOCC is working to provide food and hygiene supplies to IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the town of Gori and in the capital of Tbilisi. IOCC is also assisting refugees in North Ossetia with medical and food supplies.

News services are reporting fierce fighting between Russian and Georgian forces in the disputed Caucasus region of South Ossetia.

A matching gift fund first announced last month by IOCC for aid projects in Kosovo has increased through a gift of $50,000 by His Grace IRINEJ (Dobrijevic), Bishop of Australia and New Zealand of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

IOCC announces a new grant that will provide food and emergency supplies to vulnerable families living in Sadr City, one of the poorest and most densely populated districts of Baghdad.

IOCC’s US Program dispatched the Frontline team to Iowa after a week of torrential rains caused the worst flooding to hit the Midwest in 15 years.

The goal for IOCC’s Kosovo response is half a million dollars and includes economic development projects for isolated rural communities in Kosovo and aid to some of the approximately 225,000 people who have been displaced from the region since 1999.

IOCC is mobilizing its network of first responder Orthodox clergy to travel to Iowa to conduct a needs assessment and provide trauma counseling.

The St. George Church community – both adults and children of all ages – worked hard to create more than 100 health care kits that were sent to IOCC.

The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) has donated $20,000 of designated charity appeal funds to help further the response of IOCC to the devastating cyclone and earthquake that recently struck Myanmar and China.

IOCC has received over $40,000 in donations in support of relief efforts for Myanmar cyclone and China earthquake victims.

Before the war came to Iraq, humanitarian worker Samuel traveled from his home in Baghdad to his office in 15 minutes, but today he passes through six checkpoints in only four kilometers on his morning commute.

All star basketball player Peja Stojakovic of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets partnered with IOCC to provide mobility assistance to more than 160 disabled people in Thessaloniki, Greece.

IOCC will provide $10,000 of support including basic hygiene supplies and clothing for families who were displaced by the explosions. Psychological support and recreational activities will also be provided to children and young people.

IOCC's program will include repairs and renovations to schools in Gorazdevac and Banje. New equipment, including computers, will be provided for a school in Velika Hoca, and science lab supplies will be provided for students in Suvo Grlo.

IOCC announced an expansion of its work in Kosovo to provide immediate assistance to isolated minority communities and long term development projects aimed at providing stability and cooperation.

IOCC is addressing what the U.N. calls the “fastest growing refugee crisis” with a $2 million program currently underway to assist 4,100 Iraqi refugees and disadvantaged Syrians with school tuition, uniforms, supplies and tutoring.

The special committee overseeing the Greek Fire Relief Fund unanimously approved a $1,652,998 grant to IOCC to further its current relief and recovery work for Greek farmers.

IOCC is currently repairing and developing 206 public schools throughout Lebanon through a $4.7 million grant from USAID.

Like many of the farmers who have received emergency supplies of animal feed from IOCC, Vasili is choosing to remain in one of Greece’s rural areas in order to keep his family business, and an entire way of life, alive.

A pilot program aimed at providing long term sources of feed for animals while benefitting Greece’s devastated environment has been initiated by IOCC.

Our SCOBA hierarchs have designated the Sunday before Thanksgiving as IOCC Sunday. Their blessing is a reminder of the importance of IOCC’s pan Orthodox mission to restore peoples’ lives and livelihoods.

IOCC has been on the ground in the Peloponnese distributing 170 metric tons of animal feed among the villages of the prefecture of Ileia, benefiting more than 800 farmers.

The program, valued at over $660,000, will provide skills training in the culinary arts, agricultural production and commercial laundry work at an orphanage and a specialized institution for children and youth living with disabilities.

IOCC was recently awarded a $7.8 million contract by USAID to expand its current awareness and prevention training program in Ethiopia through the year 2011.

“I encourage parish priests to inform the parishioners about the importance of IOCC’s labors on our behalf, and to stress the solidarity we feel for our sister communities in Greece, with whom we share the Orthodox faith,” writes His Beatitude Metropolitan HERMAN, the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA)

IOCC Regional Director Mark Ohanian talks about the challenges ahead and how IOCC can bring its expertise in working with the church to help further develop Armenia.

IOCC announces an expansion of its ongoing work to provide relief to Peloponnese farmers whose homes and grazing lands were devastated by the August wildfires.

In the midst of the devastation Father Ioanni has been assisting IOCC in its work to distribute emergency relief to the farmers of this region.

The plan to bring relief to the farmers of Greece is underway with IOCC beginning its distribution of 170 metric tons of animal feed.

The Greek government reports that in the Province of Ileia, where IOCC has concentrated its disaster relief, nearly 9 million square meters of land has been destroyed including 3.5 million olive trees.

For Despina Katsivelaki, the devastation in her home country of Greece was far worse than she had imagined. “This is a terrible catastrophe, I saw villages where there was nothing, nothing left, no homes, no olive groves, nothing.”

In response to the fires raging in Greece, considered the worst the country has suffered in over 100 years, IOCC has announced an immediate emergency response to provide relief supplies and technical assistance for the thousands of displaced villagers affected by this national tragedy.

IOCC’s partnership with the monks of Visoki Decani produces wine and interethnic cooperation.

IOCC's program will provide school fees, uniforms, school supplies, tutoring, and summer school.

Modern medical care for expectant mothers is nonexistent in many parts of Africa. But the residents of Woliso will now be able to receive such care along with preventive medicine for malaria, typhoid, dysentery, and other common African ailments.

Residents who fled the southern Lebanese village of Houla came back after the August 2006 ceasefire to find that their livestock had been killed and that one of the village’s main reservoirs was completely destroyed.

IOCC has “fulfilled the yearning of the Orthodox Church in America to manifest the spiritual power of the Gospel and the compassion of Christ.”

IOCC announces the launch of a new program to train Alaskan Orthodox clergy to be certified substance abuse counselors in a state that ranks the highest in the US for alcohol and drug abuse.

Three IOCC “Frontline” clergy recently related their experience of delivering trauma and grief counseling at Virginia Tech University during the first week that students returned to classes.

IOCC Chairman of the Board Alex Machaskee and Board Member Anne Glynn-Mackoul were in southern Lebanon with IOCC Executive Director Constantine M. Triantafilou to visit some of the people and villages that IOCC has assisted since last summer’s war.

More than 3,500 families in southern Lebanon have been directly assisted by IOCC since last summer’s conflict through a grant by the US Government’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

Today, with eleven field offices around the world, IOCC continues to be the preeminent philanthropic arm of North American Orthodox Christians as it responds to crises wherever they occur — Lebanon, Indonesia, Ethiopia, the Holy Land, and the US Gulf Coast.

IOCC has developed an innovative method to ensure that donor dollars are used for what they were intended as it helps to rebuild the infrastructure of 65 villages in Southern Lebanon.

Representatives of IOCC pledged financial support for three new homes, and thousands of volunteer hours in support of Habitat for Humanity International’s “Faith Village” initiative at a special prayer breakfast in Mandeville, Louisiana.

A country with a storied Christian heritage, Ethiopia has struggled on several fronts, battling drought, war, famine and HIV/AIDS. IOCC began operations in Ethiopia in 2001 through a partnership with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Scan the faces of children gathered for a break outside Souane Elementary School and you see that life is slowly returning after the traumatic 34-day conflict last summer that left Lebanese villages bombed, roads destroyed and thousands injured and dead.

Alex Machaskee, retired publisher of The Plain Dealer and a prominent Serbian-American businessman, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of IOCC at its board meeting at the Antiochian Village in Bolivar, Pennsylvania.

IOCC has received two grants from the United States Government to significantly expand its ongoing work to help Lebanon recover from the war.

IOCC sends first wave of volunteer home-building crews to devastated communities.

Constantine M. Triantafilou has been awarded the highest honor a lay person can receive in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the office of Archon.

IOCC will provide water and sanitation installations, hygiene kits, psychosocial support, infrastructure rehabilitation, emergency relief supplies and cash for work activities in the hardest-hit southern villages of Marjeyoun, Hasbayya, and seven other villages surrounding the port city of Tyre.

Nearly $100,000 in antibiotics, surgical supplies and other critically needed medicines has arrived in Beirut.

IOCC Lebanon has sent food and hygiene parcels and canned milk and diapers to families in the village of Marjeyoun, south of the Litani River, where UNIFIL and Lebanese Army soldiers have begun to take over.

IOCC is continuing its relief efforts to displaced families, delivering food and hygiene parcels to 892 families in the Maten and Alley areas, and reaching the more dangerous regions of the Chouf during the 48-hour lull in fighting.

As Lebanon and Gaza continue to receive attacks on civilian infrastructure with hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes, IOCC staff is on the ground coordinating food, medical and hygiene supplies.

International Orthodox Christian Charities is issuing an Emergency Appeal for the Middle East, with a goal of raising $500,000 for its initial response to the dire and deteriorating situation.

International Orthodox Christian Charities’ recent shipment of hospital supplies, medical equipment and critically-needed medicines will begin to address this critical need.

IOCC and its partners have distributed health kits and school kits to survivors of the tsunami in South Asia, last year’s devastating hurricanes along the US Gulf Coast and to remote villages in Pakistan destroyed by an earthquake last year.

An earthquake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale struck central Indonesia at 5:54 am on May 27. More than 3,000 people have been killed and thousands are injured. Those numbers are expected to rise significantly as rescuers continue their work.

New projects initiated by IOCC and its partners are assisting people to return, recover and rebuild following the devastation caused by natural disasters.

In Velika Hoca, IOCC will repair two classroom floors, replace five doors, provide antifreeze for the school’s heating system, purchase blackboards and chalk.

The infrastructure rehabilitation work includes structural and cosmetic renovation of damaged roofs, ceilings, walls and floors; replacement of windows and exterior doors; and replacement of plumbing in bathrooms and drinking water systems.

Following the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and later Hurricane Rita, the response by IOCC to the Gulf Coast region has grown to more than $3 million – the largest intervention ever by the agency in the United States.

IOCC will provide 15,000 families with food items, shelter kits and house reconstruction kits.

IOCC board member Anne Glynn Mackoul presented to the UN audience of four hundred attendees descriptions of two successful IOCC projects in the West Bank related to the education of women and girls in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Three shipments of material aid, including quilts, health kits and school kits have been received by emergency response staff working for IOCC in Houston, Texas, and Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

Fr. John Salem of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church presented a $125,000 contribution to the IOCC hurricane relief efforts on behalf of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society committed its support for a $60,000 project to develop a medical clinic and school in Ambo, Ethiopia to be constructed by IOCC.

IOCC staff in Ethiopia presented a shipment of 30,000 books and instructional materials valued at more than $1.3 million to His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Three weeks after responding to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina along the U.S. Gulf Coast, IOCC Emergency Response personnel have begun preparations in Texas in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Rita.

A truckload of relief supplies destined for children and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina was delivered by National Basketball Association All-Star Vlade Divac to an IOCC Emergency Response Center.

With displaced families relocating from massive shelters to long-term accommodations and children finding placements in schools, some semblance of normalcy is returning for people displaced by the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.

His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios visited Baton Rouge, La. to meet with members of the IOCC Emergency Response Network following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Orthodox Christians in Texas have worked tirelessly since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast to deliver emergency supplies, welcome those displaced from neighboring states and partner with International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) to provide relief to the region.

IOCC is responding with assistance from partner organizations to aid the victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

An ecumenical response team made up of personnel from IOCC negotiated their way from Baton Rouge, La. to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to evacuate 340 people in need of urgent medical care.

“Grocery stores are trying to restock, but the population of Baton Rouge has swelled so dramatically in the past few days that provisions are in short supply."

IOCC was honored with the Order of St. Sava First Degree, the highest ecclesiastical award of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The At-Tayba Community Center in the West Bank constitutes a significant step in providing the most at-risk segments of this village access to education and knowledge.

Working with Orthodox Christian churches in the Gulf Coast area, IOCC will assist in efforts to house, feed and otherwise assist the more than one million people temporarily displaced by this storm.

IOCC is appealing for funding to support its emergency relief efforts in the West African nation of Niger.

IOCC recently responded to flood-stricken communities in Romania, the Republic of Georgia and Serbia where prolonged periods of rain in late April caused widespread flooding and damage.

As part of its ongoing tsunami response, IOCC is supporting efforts to train professionals in trauma counseling techniques and to provide counseling to tsunami victims.

IOCC is working with partners in Romania, the Republic of Georgia, and Serbia-Montenegro to provide emergency assistance in response to widespread flooding which damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and displaced hundreds of families.

Romanians and Americans have joined forces in an ambitious partnership to fight HIV/AIDS and family violence in Romania, a country that faces an alarmingly high level of HIV-positive teen-agers.

IOCC is working both independently and with our partners to provide emergency assistance to vulnerable families and individuals affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis in Southeast Asia.

IOCC mourns the loss of His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos, the Orthodox hierarch most responsible for the founding of IOCC in 1992.

IOCC is responding to the nutritional and hygiene needs of minority communities in Kosovo through a new project that will provide more than 1,000 families with food and hygiene parcels.

Left homeless by the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami, many of the island’s inhabitants now have no place to stay because of Monday’s earthquake, said Yorgos Daskalakis of IOCC, who helped provide assistance to the islanders in late January.

The aftershocks of the events of September 2004 continue to affect the people of Beslan, Russia, five months after gunmen attacked School No. 1, killing more than 300 children.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) are joining together to help youth through a new Lenten service project for college students in North America.

MEI Hotels President Bert Moyar and Chief Operating Officer David Moyar got their general managers on a conference call in mid-January and organized a companywide effort to assemble personal hygiene kits for the tsunami survivors.

The $3 million project will result in the construction or renovation of school classrooms, bathrooms, libraries, labs, playgrounds and other youth facilities.

IOCC and its partners are responding to the South Asia tsunami with airlifts of humanitarian supplies and other forms of assistance in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Orthodox Christians young and old are assembling health kits for shipment to the tsunami-affected countries in response to an appeal by IOCC.

The Young Adult League has set a goal to assemble 5,000 health kits to aid victims of the disaster. The “Gift of the Heart” health kits will bolster the efforts of IOCC to deliver life-saving relief supplies to areas hardest hit by the tsunami.

A global Orthodox Christian response, bolstered by a groundswell of charitable giving, is bringing life-sustaining assistance to some of the hardest hit victims of the South Asia tsunami.

IOCC is stepping up its emergency response to Sunday’s massive earthquake/tsunami in South Asia by working through its ecumenical and Orthodox Church partners to deliver life-saving relief supplies.

Together with CWS, IOCC is developing a regional response to the crisis, focusing initially on hardest-hit areas in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, and elsewhere.

On February 1, 2004, the children at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church in Southbury, Conn. raised more than $300 for IOCC as part of the “Souper Bowl of Caring” event.

IOCC implemented a school lunch and education program for the third consecutive year in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Balamand and the Lebanese Ministry of Education.

Vlade Divac, star center for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, received the Good Samaritan Award from International Orthodox Christian Charities for his years of distinguished service in support of IOCC’s humanitarian mission.

Vlade Divac is offering to match private donations to IOCC’s Kosovo project of up to $50,000. A leader on and off the basketball court, Divac and his Group 7 Children’s Foundation have helped IOCC provide half a million dollars in humanitarian assistance in his homeland since 1997.

A leader on and off the basketball court, Divac has helped IOCC, the humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians, provide half a million dollars in humanitarian assistance in his homeland since 1997.

The fourth hurricane to hit Florida and the Caribbean in six weeks, Hurricane Jeanne left her mark on areas previously visited by Hurricanes Charley and Frances in August and September.

Traveling in Bosnia-Herzegovina with IOCC, the American priest witnessed a war-torn land in the process of rebirth. “I looked into the eyes of people, and what I saw was hope,” he said, “that which comes from the work which IOCC so passionately desires to do throughout the world.”

As a result of the journal’s school kit activity, IOCC and its partner, Church World Service, distributed 18,000 school-supply kits to children in need.

IOCC is supporting the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church to care for victims and their families, including those being treated in local hospitals.

With Hurricane Frances compounding the damage of Hurricane Charley, and Hurricane Ivan looming, IOCC is continuing to help Floridians hardest hit by the storms.

Providing support to farmers and farmers’ associations in Bosnia is just one of the ways IOCC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are working to bring peace and stability to post-war Bosnia.

IOCC is supporting the work of disaster response liaison teams to identify members of communities already vulnerable before the disaster, and to assess and help meet both their short and long-term unmet recovery needs.

Several of the damaged churches in Baghdad are part of a local ecumenical network of IOCC partners that has been active in distributing food and hygiene kits to Iraqis in need over the past year.

IOCC is working to bring emergency relief to people who have been displaced by violent raids in the western Darfur region of Sudan.

Archbishop Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada and Archbishop Nathaniel of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America committed their respective communities to raising $50,000 toward new initiatives planned by IOCC in Romania.

The leader of Georgia’s Orthodox Church and a SCOBA hierarch recently praised the work that IOCC is doing to relieve the suffering of people in the Republic of Georgia.

The video, titled “We Can Change the World,” received an Award of Distinction from The Videographer Awards, an annual competition for directors, editors, producers, shooters, writers and other production professionals.

On Thursday, May 6, IOCC-Jerusalem and its local partners celebrated the opening of a Taybeh school annex that will improve the quality of education for the Christian and Muslim children who attend there.

Participants in a conference co-sponsored by International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) are calling for a more unified Orthodox response to the global challenges of war, poverty, injustice, HIV/AIDS, child abuse and environmental degradation.

An international conference being held this spring in Finland will explore the history, theology and present reality of Orthodox Christian cooperation in the area of social justice and outreach.

IOCC is providing humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people, including infants, children and the elderly. The assistance includes food staples and hygiene items, as well as linen sets, mattresses, towels, pillows, shoes and clothing.

The national awards are presented by the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), an interfaith association of more than 600 religion communicators working in print and electronic communication, marketing and public relations in the United States.

IOCC is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of those displaced, especially children. Working with local partners, IOCC expects to focus on vulnerable communities that have an immediate need for food, shelter and medical care.

Food parcels from IOCC help supplement the family's monthly food ration, improving the children's diet. And hygiene items such as detergent, soap and toothpaste contribute to the family's overall health and well-being.

Vlade Divac, one of the National Basketball Association's stars, wants to help students in the former Yugoslavia get connected. And he's partnering with IOCC to make sure that happens.

Officials from IOCC, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the U.S. government met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to sign the agreement, which will expand the Church's efforts to care for AIDS orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS, and to prevent future infections.

St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church in Webster, Texas, raised $75 for charity and collected 40 cans of food for a nearby food pantry through the "Souper Bowl of Caring."

Sacramento Kings star forward Peja Stojakovic knows something about winning seasons. Now he and IOCC are teaming up to help children in Serbia and Montenegro have a winning winter season.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected Ethiopia like few other countries in Africa, prompting an increasingly vigorous effort by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to educate the nation about the disease and to care for the afflicted.

IOCC encourages participation in the "Souper Bowl of Caring" as a way to promote volunteerism and community service among Orthodox young people.

The fellowship hall of St. Sophia, Sts. Faith, Hope & Charity Greek Orthodox Church in Jeffersonville, Pa., buzzed with excitement as each child took a cloth bag and filled it with the supplies - crayons, rulers, scissors, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers and other things.

IOCC is helping some 20,000 of these families achieve greater food security in the days and weeks to come through widespread distributions of family food parcels.

Focus on development programs with a long-term impact was a recurring theme at the recent biannual meeting of the Board of Directors of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).

Hundreds of Orthodox Christian parishes all across the United States will celebrate their role in the rebuilding of homes, the returning of refugees, the feeding of children, the training of women and other humanitarian accomplishments on IOCC Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003.

The network, organized by the U.S. Program of IOCC, will help people who have lost property as a result of the fires. "We are looking to respond with monetary assistance to the victims, as we determine what the victim count is and what the needs are," said Fr. David Kossey, national coordinator of the network.

Tens of thousands of children in Lebanon won't have to learn on an empty stomach or go without critical school supplies thanks to a newly-expanded education program by IOCC.

"We couldn't be more pleased with the number of Orthodox parishes and parishioners who have ordered the prayer journal and are now using it," said IOCC Executive Director Constantine M. Triantafilou.

IOCC is working with Ethiopian Orthodox monasteries, and other partners, in a stepped-up effort to help Ethiopia overcome the effects of drought, soil depletion and deforestation.

IOCC is offering children in the United States the opportunity to assemble and send school-supply kits to disadvantaged children around the world - just in time for the new school year.

In January, the 13 Orthodox parishes of Greater Atlanta, representing eight jurisdictions, began a cooperative effort to support the "Loaves & Fishes" food ministry of St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church (OCA) near downtown Atlanta.

IOCC senior staff recently spent a week in Baghdad opening an office and hiring personnel. They also spent time in Mosul, a city of 1.7 million people, where some 50,000 to 70,000 internally-displaced Kurds are in need of the barest necessities.

A coalition of relief agencies, including IOCC, is calling for long-term solutions to "break the grip" of poverty and recurring famine in Ethiopia - the kind of solutions that IOCC is already beginning to implement.

Since May 2002, months after the collapse of the Argentine economy, Puerto Esperanza has been working hard to meet the food needs of an increasingly desperate population in Buenos Aires and beyond.

Following up on its response to the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq, IOCC is preparing to deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars in humanitarian assistance to some of Iraq's most vulnerable citizens.

On the shores of scenic Lake Tana, in northern Ethiopia, young people are learning how to improve food production through urban garden plots.

IOCC provides Orthodox Christians in the United States with a unique opportunity to transcend their differences and work together to meet some of the world's most pressing needs, newspaper publisher Alex Machaskee said on June 2.

Calling International Orthodox Christian Charities an "organization of action," His Grace Bishop Dimitrios was honored Sunday as a man of action by IOCC's Chicago Metropolitan Committee.

In Baghdad, where 2 1/2 pounds of apples can cost a month's salary, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is working with its church partners to improve the food security of needy families.

Nicholas Chakos, former program coordinator for IOCC-Romania, recently received the Patriarch Miron Cross, the highest lay honor granted by the Romanian Orthodox Church. The award is given for outstanding social service on behalf of the Orthodox Church.

IOCC will assist 1,000 Iraqi families with their food needs and distribute 1,000 food parcels for Iraqi families as part of a six-truck convoy.

IOCC, in partnership with the Russian Orthodox Church, will distribute thousands of winter blankets to some of the neediest institutions in the Russian Federation, including hospitals, orphanages and homeless shelters.

IOCC Chief Operating Officer David Holdridge traveled to the Iraqi capital to meet with Iraqi church and humanitarian officials to get a first-hand account of the needs in Baghdad and beyond.

The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) is appealing to its member jurisdictions to unite behind an Orthodox humanitarian effort to help the suffering people of Iraq and the Middle East.

The Greek Orthodox Metropolitanate of South America, in cooperation with IOCC, is opening a humanitarian office to meet the growing social needs in Argentina.

The new agreement allows IOCC to place students from the university's graduate and professional schools as interns in IOCC field offices overseas.

With a humanitarian crisis looming in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, IOCC is working with its church partners to arrange distributions of emergency food and medicines in Iraq in the coming days and weeks.

With diplomatic efforts to peacefully disarm Iraq coming to an end, staff members of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) are being dispatched to the Middle East to coordinate an Orthodox Christian response to assist the victims of a war in Iraq.

The spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church in America recently commended IOCC for its 10 years of humanitarian work, calling it "nothing less than service to Christ Himself."

A 10-year record of responding to some of the world's worst man-made and natural disasters was honored with the awarding of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award to IOCC.

Seventeen Ukrainian sailors who were rescued Jan. 24 from a sinking freighter off the stormy coast of North Carolina are getting assistance from the U.S. Program of IOCC.

IOCC's support will build the capacity of the diocese and St. Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska, to combat the problem of alcohol abuse.

For the second consecutive year, IOCC has received a four-star rating from the watchdog group Charity Navigator. Receiving four out of four stars is an "exceptional" rating.

On Super Bowl Sunday, Orthodox Christian young people across the country will huddle to help children and families suffering from war, poverty and natural disaster.

The spiritual leader of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese expressed his continuing support for the humanitarian response by IOCC to the human suffering in the Holy Land.

IOCC Sunday is a day designated by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) to focus on the humanitarian work of the Orthodox Church.

The office will coordinate Orthodox humanitarian programs in Southeast Asia, expanding IOCC's efforts on behalf of some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Philanthropy, the humanitarian arm of the Serbian Orthodox Church, are working together to improve cooperation between the two agencies.

IOCC, through its U.S. Program, is working to strengthen collaboration among Orthodox charities like St. Xenia and build the support they receive from the Orthodox public, as well as from other sources both public and private.

Dipping their front tires into the Pacific Ocean, the cyclists of the "Race to Respond" celebrated the end of their 25-day, cross-country journey with jubilation over the safe completion of their goal - to raise support and awareness for the humanitarian mission of IOCC.

After an exhilarating ride through California's Sierra Nevada Mountains on Monday, Aug. 26, the "Race to Respond" cyclists visited the first and oldest Serbian Orthodox parish in North America.

Like the garden she lovingly tended in her back yard, Aziza Jaghab's simple life bore much fruit — in the people helped by her hard work and in the lives touched by her sacrificial generosity.

A pan-Orthodox cultural festival being held in lower Manhattan on Saturday, July 27, will help kick off a cross-country bicycle race to benefit International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).

The Ladies Philoptochos Society of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has given a gift of $30,000 to International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).

Through training in agriculture and traditional handicrafts, the women hope to use their skills to earn critically needed income for their families during this time of economic upheaval.

The Ethiopians, whose native tongue is Amharic, participated in a pilot ESL project sponsored by IOCC.

Vlade Divac, star center and rebounder for the Sacramento Kings basketball team, has worked to improve the lives of children in post-war Yugoslavia through his Group 7 Children's Foundation and partnerships with IOCC.

Deborah Hadjes Funti, representing IOCC, will participate in a Habitat for Humanity project to build 100 houses in Durban, South Africa.

The Greek government has committed $243,000 to IOCC's short-term relief effort, in addition to $30,000 in IOCC emergency funds, to be divided among food, hygiene items and medicine.

IOCC will work to identify and support at-risk families through a variety of community-based services, reintegrate children with their natural families, create alternatives to institutionalization and establish a child "safety net" of trained mentors, counselors and social workers.

The year-long school lunch program provides a daily meal for more than 22,000 children attending public schools in Greater Beirut, southern Lebanon and the northern Akkar district.

Calling the "Race to Respond" a journey for the glory of God, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese blessed on Thursday the five cyclists who will make the cross-country ride for IOCC this summer.

IOCC represents a hopeful, healing response to a world increasingly filled with despair, alienation and insecurity, said His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.

As part of its ongoing emergency response to the crisis in the West Bank, IOCC participated in two recent humanitarian convoys that brought much-needed aid to victims of the violence.

IOCC has begun providing emergency relief — food parcels, hygiene items and blankets — to areas in the West Bank most affected by the escalating violence.

"I am humbled and honored to assume the chairmanship of IOCC," Moyar said. "I will seek to continue our past practice of prudent growth in countries and programs where we can do the most good, while maintaining the highest standards of responsibility to our donors and those we benefit."

Meeting almost 10 years to the date that IOCC was founded, the IOCC Board of Directors celebrated the achievements of longtime Chairman Charles Ajalat and elected a new chairman.

They come from all walks of life, but for 25 days in August they'll put their lives on hold for a common goal: to support the humanitarian mission of IOCC.