Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those murdered in Libya for their Christian faith. We know these families are feeling unimaginable pain because of the Islamic State’s atrocities, and we are filled with sorrow at the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We trust in God to bring comfort and solace to the martyrs’ families.
In the wake of this massacre in Libya, many people are asking how they can help.
In part, this is because of our efforts to support the families whose loved ones were massacred in Libya in 2014. You can read about those efforts here, and learn how, as always, we work with accountability and transparency, and always under the guidance of our Church.
In the larger sense, we are receiving these inquiries because Coptic Orphans exists for precisely these situations. Our programs are designed to be ready whenever an orphaned child in Egypt needs help. We currently support nearly 10,000 children in villages all across Egypt, and are blessed with a strong infrastructure of Church-based volunteers. In fact, we are already serving orphans in many villages, such as El Aour, where the families of those martyred in Libya live.
We began investigating the needs of these families when we learned the news of the kidnappings. While being respectful of the privacy of the mourners, we are beginning the process of enrolling the children affected by this tragedy in our programs.
Our aim is to ensure that these children get the assistance they need in the long term, even after the massacre in Libya has faded from the headlines. We’ve spent the last 25 years preparing to meet these kinds of long-term needs — and for those of you who have asked how you can help, you can do so by donating here.