MY ACCOUNT
At A Glance:
People fleeing violence from extremist organizations often have nowhere to go and arrive at IDP camps with nothing.
- Displaced Nigerian Christians have rebuilt their lives through IDP camp programs that provide not only shelter, food, and water, but also ways to start earning a living.
- Camp residents have much to celebrate when they “graduate” to self-sufficiency – able to operate without outside support.
- Global Christian Relief has committed to a multi-year project to help graduate more IDP camps to self-sufficiency.
Faith Grows by Helping
Working at camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Rebecca and Basil have found that they aren’t just helping a vulnerable Christian community. They’re also growing in their faith.
“You know, they have also inspired me. If you see what people have gone through, and then yet they are giving thanks to God for what He has done for them … happiness, it is in God,” Rebecca says, reflecting on her five years of service in IDP camps. “That is what I have learned from them. That true happiness is in God. It's not in the resources we have gathered over time or the wealth we have or we have earned in our life. It is in God.”
“It has helped me spiritually to pray over anything I'm going to do,” says Basil, who has worked at a different IDP camp for the past three years. “Before I do it, I have to pray. Before, when I was teaching the little children, I didn’t used to pray. I just carry my Bible around to the church, read it, but now I have to sit down, pray, reflect over it before I go out to teach.”
The need for safety
Christian communities displaced by Boko Haram terrorist attacks in northern Nigeria have rebuilt their lives through IDP camps like these.
Programs providing clean water, schools, business loans, and youth stipends have enabled the camp to stand on its own. Residents own shops, some youth have graduated from university or medical school, and others are pursuing degrees.
Rebecca and Basil describe the experience as spiritually transformative, saying the resilience and gratitude of camp residents have deepened their own faith. Their united message to Christians worldwide is to keep praying for peace and persecuted believers in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram continues attacking Christian communities.
'The camp is a stepping stone for them to live.'
— RebeccaWhat is an IDP camp?
“Persecution here in Nigeria – for us, persecution is actually real,” Rebecca says. “People are still dying. Even up till this moment. Those people [Boko Haram] are still killing Christians.
She explains that Boko Haram – a terrorist organization whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – aims “to eliminate, we, the Christians who are practicing the ‘haram,’ education.”
People fleeing violence from extremist organizations like Boko Haram or militant Fulani groups often have nowhere else to go. That’s how they end up in IDP camps.
“Most of those people in the camp are people who don't have anywhere, anybody in the city to take care of them,” Rebecca explains. “The camp is a stepping stone for them to live.”
She adds that most people enter the camp with nothing: no food, no shelter, nothing to sleep on, nothing to cook with – if they had food. Sometimes they don’t even have clothing. Many children go years without schooling because survival takes priority.
In the camps, persecuted Christians not only can find shelter, food, and water, but over time can attend school and start earning a living. Rebecca oversees interest-free business loans for women paired with financial literacy training, youth leadership and coaching programs, and spiritual encouragement sessions.
What does it mean for a camp to graduate?
Basil’s camp recently celebrated a significant victory. The camp has “graduated,” meaning it has achieved self-sufficiency and can now operate without outside support.
“They will be very happy to be able to stand on their own and pray with this little development.” he says. “Which is not really little. It's not little because they have given them water, given them school, they have a church, and then we have also a community. We have youth empowerment, women empowerment.”
Basil reflects on the developments the camp has made, and the ways its residents have thrived thanks to access to education, empowerment programs, and business training and loans.
“Presently in the camp, you can see that there are shops of women, who have been empowered, and also youths who have been empowered, who have taken the little empowerment so heavily and it has brought them success to where they are,” he says. “Presently, we have youths who have graduated from a school of medicine. We have those who are still in the university trying to graduate, and we have also those who are graduating for a diploma, are trying to conclude.”
Basil was a Sunday School teacher when he heard that this IDP camp wanted to start a school and needed teachers.
“It was a difficult task,” he admits about first joining the camp. “But as time goes on, the children are picking up.”
Women dance to celebrate the "graduation" of their IDP camp to self-sufficiency.
Ongoing prayer and support needed
Basil is excited for the future and prays for other camps to similarly succeed.
“I pray that my camp, who are graduating today, will be an example to other camps and help and spread the Gospel,” he adds.
He asks others to join him in praying for Nigeria and for the camps: “I would like people, the whole world to pray for Nigeria.”
Rebecca shares Basil’s sentiment, asking that everyone continue to pray for persecuted Christians in Nigeria.
“Keep praying for Nigeria, for peace to reign in Nigeria, more especially in the northern part of Nigeria, where the Christians are still suffering even up to death,” she says. “Keep praying for us. I believe one day God is going to intervene.”
At Global Christian Relief, we’ve committed to a multi-year project to help graduate more IDP camps to self-sufficiency. You can be part of it! Join us today in helping our persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria.
An urgent call to action They refuse to hide their faith. Let’s make sure they don't face the fire alone.
Millions of Nigerian believers currently are living in displacement camps, driven from their homes by targeted, violent attacks. Yet their joy and faith in Jesus remain unbroken. Make an eternal impact today by delivering urgent emergency aid, spiritual support, and bold advocacy so the Nigerian church can continue to shine in the darkness.
