• Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Corporate Partners
  • Get Involved
    • GIVE: Refugee aid
    • Be a collection point
    • Pack with us!
    • Go: GAiN Overseas
    • Volunteer: Be part of the network!
    • Sign up to receive news updates
  • Projects
    • Disaster Response
  • News
  • Contact
  • Donate Now

A new kind of freedom in Iraq

8th February 2018 by Global Aid Network in News

For three years, 1,500 displaced people, primarily from Mosul, called a half-finished building in Erbil, which became a refugee camp, home. Here, Agapé’s humanitarian aid partner, GAiN UK, along with their local partners, worked hard to provide enough food, care packs, clothes, blankets, toys for children, and vital medical care to the hundreds of people living as refugees.

A new kind of freedom in Iraq

Every Christmas over the last three years, the team in Erbil tried to create space for the people to celebrate: putting up a modest Christmas lunch, giving gifts, and playing games. But in the midst of this, the most joyful time of the year for Christians was marked by prayers, grieving, questions, and a desperate attempt to keep hoping for the future. Most of the families in the camp had lost someone; a child, a husband, a wife, a parent; sometimes more than one family member. Most of the men were struggling with things they had seen and experienced, whilst a majority of the women were trying to keep their families going at the cost of neglecting themselves.

This Christmas, the tall skeleton of the building was empty: after Mosul and its surrounding area was liberated, most of the families returned to their hometowns and villages, and have started the long process of rebuilding.
In light of this, our local team needed to adapt their usual plans! They went to Mosul and the villages around to deliver much-needed food, hygiene and sanitary care packs, children’s toys, clothes, medical supplies, heaters, and other household utilities. They organised the usual Christmas party with the families from the refugee camp and many came. The children were so excited: joyful and loud like our team had never seen before. One father, bringing his children along, shared his experience: “It is good to have the freedom again to celebrate this joyful time of year, and to bring light into places that were turned into prisons and places of torture.” (So-called Islamic State used many churches as prisons during the war, carrying out executions in them.) “What kept me going in the camp was the thought that ‘it will all be okay one day; I only need to return to my home and it will all be okay.’ But now I am here… My home is no more, everything has been destroyed. The memories of my son, killed by a bomb, are unbearable as they are constantly in my head. Even in this, I want to celebrate this Christmas, and I pray that this first Christmas of freedom will last forever.’’

It was so good for our local team to see the joy of so many people celebrating more than just Christmas: choosing to rejoice in freedom instead of grieving, choosing to love one another, and choosing to hope for a better future. For these families, there is a long and hard journey ahead, as many are living in absolute poverty. But this Christmas they chose to celebrate life and a new beginning.

Tweet
Share
Pin it
Previous StoryOvercrowded, under-resourced and in need of hope Next StoryThere is still hope
  • Popular
  • Latest
  • Comments
  • Rethinking How to Spend Lockdown in a Global Pandemic! 20th May 2020

     Rethinking How to Spend Lockdown in a Global Pandemic!

  • Students join project in Romania 31st March 2015

     Students join project in Romania

  • Camp Moria: A Refuge 6th May 2020

     Camp Moria: A Refuge

  • GAiN UK Turns 5 & Leadership Handover 15th May 2020

     GAiN UK Turns 5 & Leadership Handover

  • On the road to Damascus 31st March 2017

     On the road to Damascus

  • 8th February 2021

     Bosnian Refugee Crisis

  • Refugee Crises in Greece 11th December 2020

     Refugee Crises in Greece

  • Rethinking How to Spend Lockdown in a Global Pandemic! 20th May 2020

     Rethinking How to Spend Lockdown in a Global Pandemic!

  • GAiN UK Turns 5 & Leadership Handover 15th May 2020

     GAiN UK Turns 5 & Leadership Handover

  • Camp Moria: A Refuge 6th May 2020

     Camp Moria: A Refuge

  • Moved Into Action 292805 Jpm2000000pmThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +000018 2015

     Moved Into Action

  • 82805 FebruaryEurope/LondonbThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +0000000000pmThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +000018 2021

     Bosnian Refugee Crisis

  • Rebuilding the Ca-Ira orphanage in Haiti 302805 42018vEurope/London02bEurope/LondonThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +0000 2014

     Rebuilding the Ca-Ira orphanage in Haiti

  • In Search of a Place to Call Home 242805 FebruaryEurope/LondonbThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +0000000000pmThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +000018 2015

     In Search of a Place to Call Home

  • Students join project in Romania 313128 FebpmThu, 08 Feb 2018 17:41:31 +00002018-02-08T17:41:31+00:0005 2015

     Students join project in Romania

NEWS UPDATES

Sign up to receive regular news updates about the work of GAiN UK by email or by post.

Click here to sign up

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

FIND OUT MORE

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • GAiN Worldwide
  • Privacy

OUR PROJECTS

  • Disaster Response
  • Hope in Haiti
  • Refugee Relief
Global Aid Network UK - The humanitarian partner of Agapé