On August 6, 10-year-old Egyptian girl Jessica Boulous was shot dead while walking home from Ahmed Esmat Street Evangelical Church with her Sunday school teacher.
This is just one recent and tragic example of Christian children facing hostility and discrimination in places where Christians are a persecuted minority.
As the next generation of the church, they desperately need our prayers and support. Christian children in Syria are especially in crisis. They are suffering acutely in the bloody conflict that has engulfed their country. According to our contacts in the country, thousands of children in Syria have been killed, and many more have been injured and disabled. Children are being tortured and used as shields during combat. Christian children are especially at risk of being attacked or murdered by rebel forces, who particularly target believers.
Abduction and abuse
Sexual violence has become rife, and teenage Christian girls are very vulnerable to abduction and abuse. Mariam, a 15-year-old Christian girl from al-Qusair, was abducted and gang-raped by Islamist fighters. Each day for 15 days, a different man ‘married’ Mariam and raped her before then repudiating her. Mariam’s abductors eventually killed her.
