30,000 hungry and traumatized Christian children fled with their parents to Armenia in the last week of September.
They were the children of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenians have lived for more than 2,000 years. In their young lives, most had experienced bombardment, hiding in cellars, and nine months of desperate food scarcity that was followed with a full-scale military invasion by Azerbaijan on September 19th.
Within a few days it was clear that their beloved homeland was lost, a land filled with ancient churches and vibrant Christian faith.
Armenian Christian children among the thousands displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh [Image credit: Arman Tatoyan/UNCRC]
Almost the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh – that is 120,000 people – are now in Armenia. Their bodies are weakened by months of near-starvation. Their minds are frantic with worry about relatives who disappeared in September, probably captured by Azerbaijan. Their spirits are broken as they grieve for the land they will never see again. They feel a terrible sense of failure to protect this Christian enclave, which for 1700 years stood as a witness to Jesus Christ.
They are afraid of the future – how will they live?
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh after reaching Armenia [Image credit: UNHCR]
Give them help. Give them healing. Give them hope.
Barnabas Aid helped the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh after it was attacked in 2020 and much of the territory seized by Azerbaijan.
Barnabas Aid helped the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh during the blockade (December 2022 to September 2023), getting food into them by channels which God gave us.
Barnabas Aid is still helping the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh, now that they are refugees in Armenia.
The world may not care about them, but we do.
Share with us in this task. It is a God-given privilege. It is a joy.
For the children it could be as simple as pens, pencils and notebooks to enable them to return to school. It could be a bed and a mattress to give them the possibility of a good night’s sleep. It could be providing special activities to heal them from the trauma.
For their parents it could be a fridge or a table and chairs, as they set up a family home again. It could be a few chickens, some sheep or a beehive, to give them a way to earn a livelihood and a renewed sense of self-worth.
