I recently returned from an emergency trip to Iraq, where our team is working on the frontlines of one of the worst humanitarian disasters I have ever witnessed.
ISIS’ systematic slaughter of Christians and other minority groups from Iraq to Syria have driven multitudes from their homes with nothing to call their own and very little hope for the future. To make matters worse, most area hospitals have been completely destroyed and the astonishing lack of medical care has become one of our biggest areas for concern.
My heart was broken when I stepped inside Ankawa Refugee Camp. This is home to over 3,000 Iraqi refugees who have escaped from the slaughter of ISIS. Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of utter human misery. One father, with a tiny infant in his arms, cried out in desperation, explaining that he had no formula left for his child who was starving. Another woman pleaded with us for medicine for her daughter who had a lesion on her head that had become dangerously infected.
A staggering number of people in Ankawa are inflicted with painful illnesses with no way to access medical care. Many will perish in the coming days, but not necessarily from the machine guns used by the soldiers. They will die of hunger, exposure, and a host of preventable illnesses we barely give a second thought to here in America.
Open sewage drains from latrines into the streets, inviting an epidemic of sicknesses. Young children, many of whom are not yet vaccinated, are extremely susceptible. Without help, multitudes will die from disease, untreated wounds, and preventable illnesses. I need your help today to launch Iraq’s first-ever mobile medical clinics . . . offering a glimmer of hope to refugees living in the midst of overwhelming despair.
Through the incredible generosity of one of our partnering churches, we were able to begin the first phase of our mobile medical clinic project. Each clinic will treat an estimated 1,200 patients per month—that’s thousands of lives each year. But funding is still urgently needed to operate these clinics on a day-to-day basis. I’m asking for your help today to make this life-saving project possible.
In addition to other aid and relief supplies—food, water, bedding, heaters, hygiene items, etc.—every dollar given will be used to run these incredible clinics.
$1,200 impacts 60 refugees with life-saving aid and access to medical care.
$600 impacts 30 refugees with life-saving aid and access to medical care.
$300 impacts 15 refugees with life-saving aid and access to medical care.
$20 impacts 1 refugee with life-saving aid and access to medical care.
This will be the very first time (that we are aware of) that mobile clinics of this kind will be available in war-torn Iraq.
The clinics will be staffed by both volunteers and hired professionals that will administer emergency care and preventative medicine to thousands of refugees in need of help. Every type of ailment—from infected cuts to bullet wounds—will be treated with utmost urgency, as most people have not had access to medical care in weeks, months, and for some, maybe even years.
When I met Ahmed, he was dying from a kidney stone . . . something that, in America, usually requires simple surgery to alleviate.
With no money or opportunity for surgery, Ahmed’s condition grew worse by the day. A doctor in the camp told him that unless the stone is removed, it is only a matter of time before Ahmed will die. Bedridden and unable to work, he is in excruciating pain with little hope of things getting better.
We worked with our translator to coordinate an emergency surgery for Ahmed by a doctor in the area. I soon realized that his life would be saved simply because God allowed us to cross paths that day.
Everyone we met was bewildered, starving, sick, and utterly alone. Every day they live in fear. Their children cry out in the night, terrified by nightmares of the horrors they have witnessed . . . astonishing images of evil that can never be erased.
Emergency supplies are needed here now more than ever before. With winter on its way, it won’t be long before thousands will be up against below-freezing temperatures, disease, exposure, and starvation.
I’m urging you to play an active role in our relief efforts. If we do not act today, tomorrow, and in the many weeks to come, our brothers and sisters won’t just continue to suffer, they will perish. Their children will perish. An entire remnant of believers will be extinguished if we do not respond immediately.
Pray God would use you—your family, your church, your community—to respond with compassion to this great need. Choose today to be a hope-giver to someone who has lost all hope.
