1,000 Children and Displaced Adults get "Soccer Salam" Humanitarian Aid

March 18, 2015

Delivery of 5 tons of humanitarian aid that left Seattle on December 19 for Baghdad, Iraq is now in the hands of a thousand children and adults who were forced by ISIS’ advance to flee their homes.

Thanks to help on the ground from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society and ICF’s wonderful NGO colleagues at the Iraq Health Aid Organization (IHAO), blankets, sleeping bags, and soccer balls were delivered to some very vulnerable children and families including:

• 486 families at two of Baghdad’s largest camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the recently constructed Nabi Yunus (Prophet Jonah) compound on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad and the also newly built Nabi Shayth (Prophet Seth) compound on the northern edge of Baghdad;

• 253 families taking shelter in Baghdad’s al-Rashid district, including families being cared for by the Shakr Obood Mosque;

• 100 families who have taken up residence in local area schools, mosques, and unfinished buildings in New Baghdad, a central district of Baghdad;

• 75 families taking shelter in Baghdad’s Karadah District, including Christian families being cared for by St. Joseph Church, a local Chaldean church;

• 33 families living in a school warehouse building in Sadr City, a densely populated district in northeast Baghdad; and

• 130 especially vulnerable families living in an open field behind al-Salam University College on the southside of Baghdad — a community previously untouched by aid.