wfn.org | ORTHODOX HUMANITARIAN, CAMPUS MINISTRIES JOIN FORCES TO HELP POOR

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES (IOCC)

110 West Road, Suite 360, Baltimore, Md. 21204 Tel: (410) 243-9820 Fax: 
(410) 243-9824

Web: www.iocc.org E-mail: news@iocc.org

For immediate release

February 18, 2005

ORTHODOX HUMANITARIAN, CAMPUS MINISTRIES JOIN FORCES TO HELP POOR

     Baltimore (IOCC) International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) 
and Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) are joining together to help youth 
through a new Lenten service project for college students in North America.

     Known as Project Axios!, the initiative will draw on the energy and 
creativity of Orthodox college students to help children and their families 
worldwide through IOCC.

     This is an outreach not only to those whom the college students are 
helping, but also to the college students themselves, who I believe will 
benefit greatly from it, said Fr. Timothy Sas, OCF executive director.

     Project Axios!, which takes its name from the Greek word for a worthy 
person, will enable college students to raise funds and awareness on campus 
for IOCC youth programs each year during Lent. There are about 180 OCF 
chapters in the United States and Canada.

     An Action Guide and other materials are available from the Project 
Axios! Web site at www.projectaxios.org.

     Fr. Sas said Project Axios! will enhance the experience of Orthodox 
college students by widening their outlook and strengthening their identity 
as citizens of the world. The role of OCF is to find new opportunities for 
college students to grow from by participating in them, he said. This 
partnership with IOCC is one vital way of doing that.

     Project Axios! also will give college students an opportunity to 
learn about the faith foundations of IOCC s humanitarian mission and to 
grow in their own faith, he said.

     A life of service is a life which is well-pleasing to God, said Fr. 
Marc Vranes, spiritual adviser to the OCF chapter at the University of 
Connecticut. Now, it is a life which Project Axios! will allow Orthodox 
college students to begin experiencing first-hand.

     By participating in Project Axios!, college students will raise 
critical support for IOCC youth programs in more than 16 countries, such as 
computer training for students in the former Yugoslavia; HIV/AIDS education 
and care in Ethiopia and Romania; school construction and renovation in the 
rural West Bank; and tsunami relief efforts in South Asia.

     Project Axios! reflects the Orthodox belief in the value of each 
individual through active service to others, said IOCC Executive Director 
Constantine M. Triantafilou. I m pleased that this partnership is opening 
new avenues of outreach for Orthodox college students to their fellow 
students and to people in need around the world.

     Founded in 1992, IOCC is the official humanitarian aid agency of the 
Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). 
OCF is the official campus ministry of SCOBA.

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For media inquiries, please contact IOCC Communications Associate Stephen 
Huba at 1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org.