Each day the streets of Athens become more crowded with families newly evicted from their homes due to job loss and the inability to pay their bills. As Greece's escalating economic woes drive more and more families into a desperate struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) in cooperation with Apostoli, the social service agency of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Athens, is putting your support to work securing food aid packages for impoverished families and jobs for the unemployed. The job shortage is especially dire for young workers under 25 with more than 46 percent of them without a job according to EU statistics. Through your desire to help, IOCC is supporting Apostoli's efforts to employ young people for jobs collecting, sorting and packaging food items from donation centers set up in 213 participating supermarkets in Greece. From a warehouse space donated by the Greek army, the newly hired workers assemble 30-pound parcels containing enough food staples such as flour, rice, beans, milk and canned tomatoes to feed a family of four for a month ...

They call it the House of Love, one of only five such special needs schools in the entire country of Haiti. Two years ago, students like these two young girls faced an uncertain future when their school, Foyer d'Amour, was severely damaged during a devastating earthquake that leveled the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The school staff, determined that these children's education continue, built a temporary facility across the street. Through your outpouring of support, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) equipped the Orthodox Church-sponsored school with everything it needed - from teacher's salaries to basic school supplies - to stay open. Since the 2010 earthquake that left 300,000 people dead and 1.5 million survivors homeless, 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. (PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey)

As the young refugee children of Somalia's famine begin to regain their strength under the watchful care of international relief organizations, many are heading back to class in one of the several elementary schools existing in the refugee camp of Bokolomanyo and other nearby camps in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia. For their older brothers and sisters, the nearest high school is more than 60 miles away leaving displaced refugee families desperate to find an accessible and safe place for their adolescent sons and daughters to complete their education. Responding to their needs and a desire to help, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) in cooperation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC) is constructing the first high school in Bokolomanyo for teen refugees. The hundreds of teenaged boys and girls now living in Bokolmanyo camp have endured years of Somalia's internal conflict, drought and displacement that denied them stable communities in which to attend school on a regular basis. As a result, more than 500 of these young Somali refugees aged 15 to 20 have not had the opportunity to complete their education ...

In a society where family is paramount, the current plight of Greek children is especially alarming. Tough government austerity measures and a struggling economy have given birth to the "new poor", a term used to describe the tens of thousands of middle-class Greeks, particularly parents struggling to feed their children and to keep a roof over their heads. The desperation of many parents has led to a dramatic increase in families asking local charities to take their children off their hands. In some cases, children are being abandoned on the doorsteps of these non-profits and left to fend for themselves. While the international media spotlights the economic crisis unfolding in Greece, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Executive Director, Constantine Triantafilou, witnessed firsthand the human toll unfolding right on the streets of Athens during his visit to Greece in December. Mothers and fathers who once had good jobs until their shops and businesses closed have become homeless and, with nowhere to turn to for help, are forced to find shelter for their families on the streets in the dead of winter. The haunting faces of gaunt children stare vacantly at nothing, too weak to complain about having gone days without regular meals ...

The past year has been a struggle for the villagers living in and around Vitanovac, Serbia, the epicenter of a jarring 5.4 earthquake last November that left two people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. With winter coming and the need for assistance still critical, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) through ongoing support from the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand, is delivering much needed relief to families still laboring to rebuild their homes and replace belongings destroyed in the earthquake. 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. The distributions are being done in cooperation with the Red Cross of Serbia. Through a generous gift from the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand, IOCC also provided wood burning stoves and firewood for 150 families last spring as well as hygiene kits and personal care products for the elderly ...

Since the devastating hurricanes in 2005, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has provided over 600 volunteers and thousands of man-hours to help surviving families along the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives by constructing new homes or doing critical renovations to existing ones. Working in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, IOCC expanded its efforts last year by sending Orthodox Action Teams to build homes in Houston. For 2012, 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 is currently recruiting volunteers for one week of active service in Houston or Minneapolis. You do not need to be skilled - just energetic! Activities vary depending on location and construction schedules, but can include siding, roofing, framing, landscaping, painting and support...