Across the world, families are struggling - some have lost homes and livelihoods, others are grieving loved ones due to wars and terrorist violence and many are simply trying to survive. In the middle of all this darkness, one can be the light someone is waiting for.

The Malta Office of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched its 2025 Gifts of Faith campaign to shine a light of hope in Ukraine, Gaza, Syria and some of the darkest places of the world where this light is most needed.

ACN (Malta) Director Stephen Axisa said: "Through our 2025 Christmas season campaign, you can help a child go back to school, wrap someone in warmth or bring comfort to a family in trauma. Every gift you offer becomes part of something bigger - a living witness to hope."

With €90 one can help a child in Lebanon to continue their education. Behind the beautiful smiles of Lebanese school children there is immense suffering. They continue to see bombs falling near their homes. With families unable to pay tuition and teachers going months without wages, nearly 9000 Christian children are facing the risk of missing out on their basic education in the coming months. "Without your help, our schools will have to close their doors.  I make a heartfelt appeal to you: support our Christian schools in Lebanon," says Sister Dalida Hoyek, headmistress of a Catholic school in Lebanon.

In Gaza, notwithstanding a fragile cease fire, Christian families are still suffering. Many of them are displaced and others have lost their loved ones and livelihoods due to the war. The few Christians who are enduring this crisis in the Holy Land are in an environment of total distrust in the future; it is a critical moment.

Through Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), one can provide urgent aid to Christian families in Gaza, delivering food, medicines and shelter where essential needs are most desperate. By donating Gifts of Faith of €60 each, donors stand with the small Christian community of around 450 persons in Gaza. This way benefactors will be effectively renewing hope in this small and afflicted community.

The Ukrainian clergy, as well as religious Sisters, have remained at their posts through the worst of this three-year war, so that they alleviate the immense suffering Ukrainians are experiencing. This is why the continued support for these courageous clergy is so important right now. Donations of €150 will enable ACN-supported clergy to go deeper into their respective communities, with food trucks and mobile chapels offering sustenance, courage and emotional support.

In Syria, it is already becoming freezing cold. After years of war and economic collapse, families are struggling to survive. For many children, even one warm coat is beyond their family's reach. Through ACN (Malta), one can help Sister Annie distribute winter coats to vulnerable children in Aleppo, Damascus and beyond. These coats, costing €15 each, are more than clothing: they are a tangible sign of hope for these children facing immense hardships.

Around 90,000 South Sudanese refugees, 83% of them women and children are assisted by Fr Ubaldino Andrade, his fellow Salesian Priests, along with four Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate. In recent years,  thanks to ACN's support, they have built four nursery schools for nearly 700 children and a special programme for 155 disabled children, but the needs keep growing.

One student pays school fees with firewood and two rolls of toilet paper. Others arrive traumatised, hungry and afraid.  A kind Gift of Faith of €38 this Christmas season helps provide education and care to the youngest and most vulnerable.  This is not just a donation, but a restoration of safety and dignity right where they are.

To support these Christmas projects with Gifts of Faith in any of these countries, one can visit www.acnmalta.org/giftsoffaith alternatively, one can send a cheque payable to Aid to the Church in Need (Malta) at 35/3 Mdina Road, Attard ATD 9038.

Mr Axisa said: "This December, through this Gifts of Faith campaign, one will enable ACN (Malta) to provide practical and most essential support for persons who are passing through their darkest period in life. This Christmas choose to be the light of hope for someone in greatest need."

ACN (Malta) is a voluntary organisation (VO/2227) which forms part of a Pontifical Foundation. In Malta, ACN has been operating for the last 11 years. For more information about its work, one may contact ACN (Malta) on 2148 7818 or 7922 5500 (available also on WhatsApp).  Volunteers are welcome.