IOCC began working in Iraq in 2003 to respond to the humanitarian crisis following the second Gulf War. Working in partnership ACT Alliance, IOCC provided food parcels and hygiene kits to vulnerable and internally displaced families in Baghdad and Mosul, as well as food and hygiene parcels to more than 2,000 Christian and Muslim families suffering from violence in Baghdad’s Sader City in late 2008.
IOCC also completed a program providing food and hygiene for vulnerable families who had fled heightened violence in Mosul. Those who have benefitted from IOCC’s assistance in Iraq include internally-displaced persons, invalids, extended families, single-headed households, orphans and the elderly.
Emergency Relief
A decade ago, Iraqi families fled civil war to find refuge in Syria. Now, as Syria’s spreading civil conflict enters its third year, Iraqi refugee families that had settled in Syrian cities such as Aleppo and Damascus are forced to flee again. Many have returned to refugee camps in northern Iraq, where IOCC delivered hygiene items and quilts, to more than 2,100 refugee families seeking a safe haven from Syria’s violence.
