Franciscans Launch New Website to Aid Middle East Christians
Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) May 21, 2015 -- When one thinks of Franciscans, websites usually are not the first thing that come to mind. The Franciscans involved in the work of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land (FFHL) hope that with their newly designed, intuitive website, all that will change.
“Our last website was designed several years ago,” said public relations Director, Richard Sontag. “We really needed to redesign the website with technology that is contemporary, intuitive and donor friendly – especially for all our mobile users.”
Creating the website was no small feat. Along with interactive text and images, video had to be created and embedded within the site to creatively “tell the story,” as lead designer Nik Sternhagen said.
“We believe the Franciscans in the Holy Land have an important story to tell and we worked for months figuring out how to do that through text, images and video.”
Christians throughout the Holy Land face ongoing discrimination and often find themselves caught in the middle of tensions between fundamentalists of all kinds. The result is that more than 300 Christian families leave the Holy Land each year.
“That number used to be a lot higher,” said Fr. Peter Vasko, ofm, President of the FFHL. “I can remember a time when more than 500 Christian families were leaving the Holy Land each year. That’s why we founded the FFHL. We wanted to stem the tide of Christians leaving the Holy Land by giving them reasons to stay.”
The new website gives easy-to-find descriptions of the fourteen programs being funded by the FFHL and provides videos of Christians telling their own stories about how the Franciscans have made a life-changing difference in their lives.
“Housing and education have been two major challenges Christians have traditionally faced in the Holy Land. The Franciscans have made those top priorities,” says public relations associate, Chris Weldon.
“Our new website does a much better job of marketing the message so the voices of Franciscans in the Holy Land aren’t lost amidst the many other voices clambering for our attention these days. That’s also why we upgraded the press room. We want journalists to have quick and easy access to past and present press releases, featured articles, and facts and figures. I think they’ll find it very easy to use,” Weldon said.
The new Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land website can be found at http://www.ffhl.org.
For more information, contact Chris Weldon at cweldon(at)ffhl(dot)org or call (866) 905-3787.
Chris Weldon, Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, http://www.ffhl.org, +1 (317) 574-4191, [email protected]
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