Helping Children who Escaped ISIS
Iraqi Kurdistan
Starting in the Summer of 2014, ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria forced more than one million people to escape into Iraqi Kurdistan.
More than 100,000 children were among the refugees, many of them fleeing horrific violence in the desert heat with little more than the clothes on their backs.
After meeting with US officials, local officials and relief organizations, Spirit of America personnel identified an urgent unmet need. The children who escaped from ISIS through the desert in the heat of summer were not prepared for the coming cold, rain, and snow of winter.
Even worse, the children often had to slog through raw sewage to go to the toilet, risking infection and disease.
In October, Spirit of America started raising funds to provide these children with rubber boots for winter.
Just 14 days later, boots began arriving in the refugee camps.
Spirit of America field personnel managed the project on the ground: purchasing the boots locally, handling finances and managing distribution of the boots to ensure they were given to the children who need them.
Through this project, Spirit of America was able to deliver boots to 40,000 of the most vulnerable children who escaped ISIS.
This is not nameless, faceless assistance. The boots are gifts of friendship from the American people.
And, this is not neutral assistance: as with everything we do, this project is in coordination with US personnel and in support of their objectives.
About Spirit of America
We are citizens serving the nation. Spirit of America is the only 501(c)(3) non profit working alongside US servicemembers and diplomats to improve their safety and success. In 2018, Congress recognized us as a partner in supporting the missions of deployed United States personnel around the world.
