Seminarians at St Augustine Seminary in Jos, Nigeria, singing a hymn

"When you go back home, tell the people that there are many of us who want to be priests. Extremists in Nigeria follow the way of violence but we want to follow the way of the Lord."
Just months away from ordination to the priesthood, Deacon Hezekiah Kovona is one of 327 young men at St Augustine's Seminary in Jos, Nigeria.
St Augustine's has suffered repeated threats from extremists. Once Islamists set fire to a monastery next to the seminary and threatened to overrun St Augustine's but the students rushed out and the mob ran away.
Now, seminarians take it in turns to patrol the site's perimeter wall, making use of a hotline to Jos police headquarters if trouble arises. One seminarian, named Genesis, said: "We attribute our survival to God. People -- even our families -- sometimes ask why we want to risk our lives as priests but we are not afraid."
Genesis is one of more than 5,000 seminarians in Nigeria -- the highest number in all of Africa. Aid to the Church in Need is committed to helping students at St Augustine's and others preparing for priesthood. Since 2010, Aid to the Church in Need has provided ongoing help for 56 seminarians from the Archdiocese of Jos and provided Mass stipends for 19 priests working at St Augustine's.
Find out more about Aid to the Church in Need's support for Christians in Nigeria at http://www.acnuk.org/nigeria