{"id":6565,"date":"2017-05-10T12:01:39","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T16:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iheartkids.smcse.com\/close-home-3-iraqi-children\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T13:24:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T13:24:47","slug":"close-home-3-iraqi-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/close-home-3-iraqi-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Close to Home. We heart Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As first-generation children of Iraqi immigrants, we have a special place in our hearts for Iraq. We are one of very few first-generation children lucky enough to have had the privilege to visit the country our parents once called home. We spent the summer of 1990 on a family vacation to Iraq where many of our best childhood memories were created in the beautiful streets of our parents hometown Telkaif<\/a> or in the deep mountains of Mosul.<\/p>

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Due to persecution since 2003, Christians have left Iraq in large numbers. less than 500,000 remain today from as many as 1.5 million. Under the ISIS takeover in June 2014, Christians in Iraq were told to convert to Islam, leave their cities, or be killed. Leaving more than 200,000 refugees in need of medicine, food and supplies.<\/p>

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While there are many organizations and relief funds doing great work today we feature HelpIraq.org<\/a><\/p>

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A\u00a0nonprofit organization founded by St. Thomas, Chaldean Catholic\u00a0Diocese of Detroit and\u00a0Adopt a Refugee Family Program. \u00a0Helping the innocent and the helpless people of Iraq.<\/p>

HelpIraq.org has continually assisted in funding and developing several projects helping the thousands of displaced christians. They have created several sub-groups to meet various needs including medical, legal and educational.<\/p>

One of the groups is the Medical Emergency Relief for Christians of Iraq, or MERCI<\/a>, a 501(c)(3) organization. Consisting of Detroit-area volunteer doctors, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists and other health professionals.<\/p>

To date MERCI alone has opened 10 medical clinics serving more than 10,000 people and have raised over $400,000 in donations.<\/p>

From a life saving kidney transplant to a heating and cooling system donated to a makeshift kindergarten school, HelpIraq.org is our #1 pick for charitable services. Thank you HelpIraq.org!<\/p>

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To learn more or make a donation please visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.helpiraq.or<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As first-generation children of Iraqi immigrants, we have a special place in our hearts for Iraq. We are one of very few first-generation children lucky enough to have had the privilege to visit the country our parents once called home. We spent the summer of 1990 on a family vacation to Iraq where many of …<\/p>\n

Close to Home. We heart Iraq<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[626,627,628,372,181,629,374,630],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FullSizeRender-6.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6565"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34658,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6565\/revisions\/34658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iheartkids.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}