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Supporting Iraqi Refugees

Iraq has suffered through three wars in the last 20 years. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the entire Middle East faces a refugee crisis with more than 4.5 million Iraqis displaced from their homes.

In November 2007, AFSC dispatched a team to assess the needs of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people. While we have identified several options for assistance and peacebuilding efforts, our work will remain flexible to the needs on the those affected.

Donate now to support AFSC's aid and peacebuilding work with Iraqi refugees >

Opportunities for Aid and Development Work

Working in the countries neighboring Iraq, AFSC and our partners in the region are working to heal the wounds of this war. Our current work includes the following:

Rehabilitation clinics.
Many refugees have lost arms or legs in the war, and there is a significant need for clinics that can manufacture and fit prostheses. With our partners, we are committed to fitting dozens of refugees who live below the poverty line with needed artificial limbs. However, we believe that it’s not enough to provide a prosthetic limb. So AFSC is also providing the psychological and physical therapy to those injured.

Helping women earn livelihoods.
Making a living is an almost impossible task for Iraqi refugees, many of whom depleted their savings to flee the country. In addition, many of the households are run by women. AFSC is helping provide training in job skills related to food processing for women refugees. The food they process feeds residents of a women's shelter.

Trauma healing.
Many of Iraq’s refugees have witnessed the killing of family members; they’ve seen friends and relatives kidnapped. There is a massive need for trauma healing. Only limited resources are available in Iraq’s neighboring countries. AFSC is supporting efforts helping to identify those who are suffering from the double trauma of war and displacement and to provide them and their families with wellness workshops and peer support.

Our assessment team also has identified more other areas of work for the coming months.

More Opportunities for Aid and Development

Schools. The number of Iraqi refugees of school age is straining the educational systems of neighboring countries. Even with two sessions a day, classrooms are overcrowded and teachers are stressed. AFSC is exploring the feasibility of adding classrooms and possibly helping to build desperately needed new schools.

Sanitation. It’s not glamorous, but it is necessary. There's a tremendous need for environmental health improvements such as garbage collection and sanitation in communities heavily populated by Iraqi refugees.

Oppportunities for Bridge Buidling

Work with prisoners and former prisoners.
The prisons in Iraq are so traumatic that they are rightly considered breeding grounds for extremists. We want to help individuals heal and even to redirect young prisoners away from extremism by establishing advocacy, peacebuilding, and trauma healing with detainees and ex-detainees.

Reconciliation and peacebuilding.
AFSC’s Middle East regional office is working with many Iraqi leaders to explore a process of reconciliation and peacebuilding, and we hope to pursue every opportunity. If Iraq begins to stabilize, we need to be ready to support peacebuilding within that society.

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