— The Front Lines: West Africa

Nigeria

The Church is the last line of defense.
VPP keeps it standing.

In Nigeria, Christian communities face the most sustained and lethal persecution on earth. Churches are burned. Pastors are murdered. Families are driven from their homes. The local Catholic Church remains the primary institution keeping communities alive — providing food, shelter, medicine, and security where the government cannot or will not. VPP sponsors 50 parishes to ensure they never have to choose between keeping the lights on and keeping their people safe. One hundred more are waiting.

50

Catholic institutions sponsored

100+

Parishes on the waiting list

$150

Pays for 3 security guards for one parish for one month

$250

Sustains one parish for one month

Christians in northern Nigeria face targeted, lethal violence.

The Middle Belt

The Middle Belt region of Nigeria — a swath of states cutting across the country's center — has historically been home to a mixed Christian and Muslim population. Farmers, teachers, pastors, and local officials built a shared civic life across religious lines. That coexistence has been under sustained attack for decades.

Boko Haram and its aftermath

The rise of Boko Haram in the early 2000s introduced a new and more lethal dimension to anti-Christian violence in Nigeria. Churches were bombed. Schools were burned. Thousands of Christians were killed or displaced. Even after Boko Haram's territorial collapse, the violence did not end — it fragmented and spread, carried forward by affiliated groups, criminal networks, and Fulani militants whose attacks on Christian farming communities have continued with near-total impunity.

Nigeria consistently ranks among the top five countries in the world for Christian persecution. That fact receives almost no sustained international attention.

More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country on earth. The silence around that fact is itself a form of abandonment.
Jason Jones

The attacks are not random. They are systematic.

The violence against Christians in Nigeria is not episodic. It is structural — a sustained campaign targeting Christian communities, their churches, their leaders, and their livelihoods. In the Middle Belt, Fulani militant attacks on Christian farming villages have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed communities that had existed for generations. In the northeast, Boko Haram and its successor Islamic State West Africa Province continue to target churches and Christian civilians.

What the attacks look like

A typical attack follows a pattern: armed men arrive at night, burn homes and crops, kill men of fighting age, abduct women and children, and disappear before any security response arrives. Churches are a primary target — destroying the church destroys the community's center of gravity. Without the church, the community disperses. Without the community, the land is effectively cleared.

The response gap

Nigerian security forces have been largely unable or unwilling to protect Christian communities in affected regions. Response times are slow, prosecutions are rare, and impunity is the norm. The Catholic Church — with its network of parishes, schools, and hospitals — often provides the only institutional continuity remaining after an attack.

It is in this context that VPP's Vulnerable Parish Program operates. The parish is not merely a place of worship. In northern Nigeria it is a food distribution point, a medical clinic, a safe meeting place, a school, and a refuge. Keeping the parish open and secure is not a religious act. It is a survival act.

A parish is not merely a place of worship. In northern Nigeria it is also a food distribution point, a medical clinic, a refuge. Keeping parishes open is a survival act.
Jason Jones

50 parishes sustained. 100 more waiting. The need is not slowing down.

VPP currently sponsors 50 Catholic institutions and one Jewish synagogue in Nigeria through the Vulnerable Parish Program. Each sponsored institution receives a monthly stipend covering security guards, food, shelter, medicine, and urgent needs as they arise. The program works because it works through existing local structures — the parish network is already there, already trusted, already serving. VPP simply ensures it has the resources to keep doing so.

Programs

Monthly parish stipend: Each sponsored parish receives a monthly stipend of $250 — covering security guards, food for vulnerable community members, medicine, and operational costs. This is not a large amount. It is enough to make the difference between a parish that stays open and one that closes.

Security guards: $150 per month pays for 3 security guards for one parish — a visible, trusted deterrent that allows Sunday services to happen without fear and children to attend parish schools without their parents wondering if they will come home.

Food and medicine: Many of VPP's sponsored parishes serve as de facto food distribution and medical support centers for their surrounding communities. The monthly stipend ensures that function continues regardless of local economic conditions or security disruptions.

The waiting list: 100 parishes are currently on VPP's waiting list. Each one has applied, been assessed, and been found to be in genuine need. Each one is waiting for a donor to make it possible. At $250 per month, sponsoring one parish for a year costs $3,000.

One hundred parishes are waiting. We intend to reach them all.

VPP's goal is to work through the waiting list — bringing every assessed and approved parish into the Vulnerable Parish Program as donors make it possible. The need is documented. The structure is in place, the only variable is funding.

Immediate priorities

Sponsoring parishes currently on the waiting list. Maintaining and strengthening support for the 50 currently sponsored institutions. Expanding the security guard program to parishes that face the highest threat levels.

Long-term commitments

VPP's commitment to Nigeria is not contingent on media attention or political cycles. The Vulnerable Parish Program is designed to be sustainable — low overhead, locally administered, and directly accountable to the communities it serves. VPP will remain in Nigeria for as long as parishes need support.

The structure is in place, and the need is documented- one hundred parishes are waiting.
Jason Jones

Suggested Donation Amount

$150

Security guards for one parish for one month.

$250

Sustains one parish for one month.

$1,000

Sustains one parish for four months.

$3,000

Sponsors one parish for a full year.

Sponsor a Parish

Urgent · Active Campaign

Protect Christians in Nigeria

Globally, Christians in Nigeria are at the highest risk of murder. Christians are being slaughtered at funerals and at church. School children and priests are being kidnapped, with some returning home after a ransom is paid...and others never to return. This is why the Vulnerable Parish Program is working to ensure clergy and churches in Nigeria have the security they need to survive and keep the Church alive.

Every 2 Hours A Christian Is Killed In Nigeria

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Your Gift

$13.33

Protects Christians for one day

$93.31

Protects Christians in Nigeria for one week

$400

Protects one Catholic parish, school, hospital, or seminary

Nigeria

The Church is the last line of defense. VPP keeps it standing.

50

100+

$150

$250

Christians in northern Nigeria face targeted, lethal violence.

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The Church is the last line of defense.
VPP keeps it standing.