When Islamic extremists entered Maaloula, Syria, in 2013, Jacqueline Jirjis’s husband was kidnapped. She took her seven-month-old daughter, 3-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter and fled to Damascus; later, she received news that he husband had been killed.
Mrs. Jirjis found work with the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary and, when she could no longer work because of surgery on her hand, the sisters and other church agencies supported her with clothing, fuel, food and necessities for her children.
“Even now, they continue to stand by us,” says Mrs. Jirjis.
Salesian Father Pedro Garcia, rector of the Salesian community in Damascus, says his fellow priests and brothers aim to help families during Syria’s current economic crisis.
“We must build a country where everybody [can identify as] Syrian in a free world,” he says.
Learn more about the work of church agencies in Syria in this video. You can read more about how the dwindling Christian community is surviving in “In Need of a Lifeline” in the June 2025 edition of ONE magazine.