Our Purpose
To serve humanity so all may live as God intended.
Our Motto
Justice. Compassion. Love.
About ADRA
The Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA), is the global humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church—part of the 21.9 million strong Adventist community, with hundreds of thousands of churches globally and the world’s largest integrated healthcare and education network.
ADRA delivers relief and development assistance to individuals in more than 120 countries—regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, gender, or religious association.
By partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments, ADRA is able to deliver culturally relevant programs and build local capability for sustainable change.
About ADRA MENA
Regional Director
Denis Baratov
Finance Director
Zeny Cooper
ADRA MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is a regional office based in Beirut, Lebanon, providing administrative and programmatic support to 5 implementing office’s. These ADRA office’s include; South Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon.
Projects in the region primarily support refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), responding to the effects of natural disasters on vulnerable populations, epidemic emergencies, and improving food security, livelihoods, water and sanitation.
Previously, ADRA has also had a presence in Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey.
SAWS (Seventh-day Adventist Services) appointed its first director for the Middle East Union Mission (MEUM), with headquarters based in Beirut, Lebanon.
SAWs was changed to ADRA in 1984.
The first project, a health clinic in Juba, Sudan, was established focusing on mother-child health.
ADRA Sudan was officially registered in Khartoum, Sudan. A food distribution program was initiated to meet the needs of victims suffering from famine.
Following an earthquake in Northern Iran, an ADRA office was opened in Tehran to monitor a rehousing project.
An ADRA office was established in Amman, Jordan to assist Palestinian refugees in camps on the outskirts of the capital.
ADRA also opened a further two office’s establishing ADRA Yemen in Sana’a, and ADRA Tunisia.
An ADRA office was opened in Morocco.
ADRA establishes a presence in Turkey.
ADRA Iraq was first established in Baghdad.
ADRA Sudan, ADRA Yemen, and ADRA Tunisia, become part of the newly formed Greater Middle East Union Mission (GMEU) appointing a permanent director for ADRA GMEU.
In October, ADRA Iraq, ADRA Lebanon and ADRA Syria were also registered.
ADRA GMEU is known today as ADRA MENA.
ADRA International granted a license to ADRA Kurdistan. In June, ADRA Kurdistan was officially recognized by the local government.
ADRA took part in a major emergency response after the Beirut blast of August 4 in Lebanon.
In November, MENAUM ExeCom voted to reorganize with a new ADRA MENA Regional Board of Directors under the chairmanship of the President of ADRA International.
New members were appointed in March 2022.