Founded in 2014 by Siobhan Nash-Marshall and Rita Mahdessian in Glendale, California, the Christians In Need Foundation (CINF) was a response to the horrors inflicted upon Christians in the Middle East and the Caucasus. By November of that same year, CINF arranged for eight Syrian Christians to study in the United States, intending to aid in the preservation of the cultures of the communities to which the students belonged through education. Yet when the program was set to launch, all eight student visas were denied.

In 2015, CINF decided to reverse course and instead send teachers abroad to live and work with Christian communities in the Middle East and Caucasus. That summer, in answer to a request for help, CINF sent its first volunteer teacher, a recent college graduate, to Tashir, Armenia to teach English to 150 children at the Diramayr Hayastani Ketron summer camp. While living in Tashir, the volunteer came to know the community, its virtues, and its particular needs. She also developed important skills: leadership, communication, organization, and cooperation.

The 2015 experience became the model for CINF’s work. Through it, the Board realized that it was meant to serve both Christians of the Middle and Near East as well as Western youth. By sending young, ambitious volunteers, especially from America, to live in ancient Christian communities, CINF could aid the education of both. This international exchange became a defining characteristic of CINF’s work.

Then, in the Summer of 2017, CINF sent two new volunteers, again American recent college graduates, to Stepanakert, Artsakh. For three months, they taught English and forged friendships with the local Armenian-Christians. Their results were remarkable and confirmed CINF’s path. After that summer, the Board of CINF determined to concentrate the bulk of its international efforts in Artsakh, which promised a deep and fruitful relationship between Christians. What began as a small-scale initiative to teach local Artsakhtsi English eventually grew into CINF’s Language Program, which graduated more than 200 students as of 2019. 

In 2019, Italian artisans and businessmen joined the American team at work in Artsakh to establish a Vocational Program. The first master-craftsmen, two tailors and one carpenter, traveled to Artsakh in the Fall of 2021 to begin a series of workshops. Future initiatives will include internships and a senior-year laboratory experience.

In 2021, CINF founded the Antonia Arslan Armenian-Italian Hamalir.

By working directly with the communities it serves, CINF ensures a mutual exchange between its volunteers from around the world and its partners from within the communities it serves. This provides CINF, through its volunteers on the ground, first-hand knowledge of the unique challenges each community faces. Based on this understanding, CINF prepares programs tailored to meet these challenges. CINF then partners with the community, through government offices, schools, and the everyday citizen, to see these plans successfully actualized and developed. By working with and within the community, CINF ensures that those it serves are prepared to face their own challenges, in the present and the future. Because of this focus upon teamwork, CINF delivers effective and long-term solutions to the problems that threaten Christians around the world.