Humanitarian Shipments: Bringing Relief Across Continents

Through our coordinated efforts, critical aid has reached some of the most devastated regions:

  • Honduras: 48 pallets of humanitarian supplies, including medical aid, clothing, and educational materials, have been sent to support orphans and families in dire need.
  • Iraq: Emergency relief and long-term aid continue to uplift displaced families and genocide survivors.
  • Syria: A 40-foot container of critical aid is in progress, responding to the targeted massacres of thousands of innocent civilians, including Christians, Druze and Alawite families.

Empowering Egyptian Women: ROS’s Educational Initiatives Post ‘Let Us Dream’ Festival​

At the “Let Us Dream” Festival in Egypt, thousands of women gathered to stand boldly against forced marriage, sexual violence, and lack of education, breaking free from societal constraints. Inspired by their courage, ROS launched a series of educational, vocational and empowerment workshops, securing a 1,000-square-meter facility dedicated to equipping women and their families with the skills, education, and mentorship needed to thrive.

Coronavirus Update

Hello ROS friends and family! We wanted to give a quick update on the Coronavirus, particularly to our friends and partners in the Middle East working with refugees. Below we have attached videos from our Tech Over Trauma manager, Hanaa, giving us tips on staying healthy. We also have information sheets that are very beneficial as well. Check our social media for more info too!

How to protect yourself from the Coronavirus

 

Recent visit to our team in Kurdistan, Iraq

During the first part of December of 2019, some of our team members from the US went to Kurdistan to see our students and on the ground operations in Iraq. Yvette Isaac, ROS president and founder, Emily Shaffer, our staff writer, along with a few of our supporters went to Erbil, Iraq to connect with our team in Iraq. Arriving just 2 months after the Turkish attacks in northeastern Syria, we got to see first hand the devastation that had ensued with Kurdish Syrians fleeing into northern Iraq. 

We were able to meet with our team on the ground in Iraq and observe the various projects occurring there:

  • Visited refugee camps our team works in around Dohuk and Erbil, where tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds had made a temporary home

  • Evaluate the needs in regards to medical attention as we have hired doctors and team members to help during this time of crisis, what supplies, equipment, and staffing there were in need of and how we could support them

  • Distribute clothes and accessories in refugee camps such as scarves, long undershirts, socks, hair bands, clips, hair ties

  • Meet with survivors of Isis captivity that we have grown close

  • Meeting and hearing from Princess of the Mian of the Yazidis About what the Yazidis are going through during this time, her ideas for recuperation, and what she needs from the local and international community.

  • Connecting with Lord David Alton, a primary figure in the British Parliament, and getting his perspective so we could all partner together to meet the various needs in the camps. He was then able to go back to the UK, sharing that with the rest of the British government

 

That camp in particular was mostly consisting of Syrian refugees who were flying north eastern Syria on the run from the Turkish attacks. We got to be present with a lot of kids and parents there which was really special to connect with them on that level. There was still so much pride and happiness that they carried with them such as being very hospitable and wanting to show off where they lived in their tents. Even grown men had transformed their tents into shops in market places or even  little restaurants. They were really proud of what they had and what they could still do to be able to use their skills to benefit those around them.

Another significant aspect of our trip to Kurdistan was the opening of our clinic in Sigy. We have been building a medical clinic and the playground and classrooms there since the spring of 2019 and we were finally able to open this to the public officially in December 2019. We have a doctor on staff that is able to be at the clinic one day a week. However our goal is to have a doctor there five days out of the week. It was very exciting to have the support of several local Kurdish new stations along with government officials, church leaders in the region, and Dohuk health employees. Included at the site of Sigy were also classrooms we were able to construct. The layout also had a turf soccer field that we built back in the summer that kids were already enjoying playing on. Our team that came from the US to Kurdistan had a blast spending time with the kids in engaging with them and playing games together.

Despite Roads of Success being a small organization in a large region of the world, we were able to see firsthand the fruits of all that the Lord is doing in northern Iraq. We were able to better understand the needs of the area and how we can best support our team and the communities there. We came away inspired to continue the work that we were doing there, trusting that it is bringing healing and restoration to a volatile place. Our president and founder Yvette has become even more inspired to continue these projects in that region as we sink our roots into Kurdistan even further.

A New Tragedy Has Hit Again!

The Syrian refugee crisis continues! More than 360,000 people (Kurds, Christians, Assyrians) have been displaced by the ongoing fighting that has been occurring. They are now refugees in desperate need of your help. We have teams on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are fleeing to. In these camps, we provide medical relief, give food, and distribute winter clothes. $40 will help a family with food costs for a month! $20 will help a family be examined by a doctor, receive medication, along with clothes for the winter. Donate today to help the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in need! DONATE NOW!

 

UPDATE FROM THE FRONT LINES

Our partners in the Middle East have told us that the situation is tough and many are walking, going to Iraq, specifically Dohuk. Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis are fleeing the area, as there is no food in Syria and all the areas that have been supplying food have been hit hard by the Turkish invasion. Currently thousands of Syrians are fleeing to Iraq, which is safer for now, but may not be for much longer. Northern Iraq, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees, are packed with displacement camps and are already short on supplies. At the moment, our students in Iraq are safe, but please continue to pray for their safety. Please also pray with us and donate as we are doing all we can to help those who are fleeing and suffering if you would like to be apart of bringing aid to this crisis.

US withdraws from Syria and Turkey invades

Tragedy has hit the Middle East again in northeastern Syria as US president Donald Trump has pulled the American troops out of the region. Turkish and ISIS forces are now invading and uprooting the already vulnerable area. We need your help and your prayers now more than ever. Our hearts are breaking as our partners and refugees there are in harm’s way. Kurds are being killed and the unrest in the are will likely spend and continue to cause panic. Please pray for all those affected by this, consider donating to our cause, and pray for God to work miraculously in ISIS and Turkish territory. We are seeking to send humanitarian containers as soon as we can. We need all the help we can get!!

(photo from Aleppo in 2017)

A New Reality: Facing the Threat of ISIS 

By Emily Shaffer

ISIS isn’t a new headline I read about a few times a month. Sometimes I wish it was. It’s not something I’ve learned about in a documentary or book any more. It’s real. It’s affected people I know and love and still continues to. Therefore, it has affected me. Sometimes it’s hard to let Jesus be bigger than ISIS and the imminent fear of them. How am I supposed to make sense of the worst form of the Devil incarnate terrorizing friends and family to no avail? 

 

Battling the threat of the Islamic State has become a new normal and sometimes I just wish it wasn’t. I know it’s not my burden to carry, but my heart still breaks and the fear still sets in. What is my response supposed to be when my students tell me that they want to move to America because Iraq has ISIS? It still rattles me. It’s like my head can’t grasp that this evil called ISIS is real and that they’ve infiltrated every aspect of the lives of my students, friends, and fellow sons and daughters of Christ across the Middle East. Is this supposed to be a new normal or is it normal to feel nauseous this often? The thing is, I want to see Jesus in Islamic State members. And I do. I absolutely do, sometimes even more than in myself. They’re humans after all, made in His perfect image. I want to love them as such. This may be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to love before. Can I do this? ISIS feels like a pill I just can’t swallow. I feel torn between two words, and I have no idea where I belong. 

 

The Devil is breathing down my neck. He’s breathing down all of ours. There are often a multitude of questions that swirl through my mind: “Am I supposed to live this way? Will this ever get easier? How would Jesus respond to ISIS?” That last question always packs a punch and often leaves me searching for more than I bargained for. But the questions usually don’t stop there: “Why do I want to go so bad to a place everyone is leaving? Am I just kidding myself? Do I want to do it because it’s badass, because it’s different, or because I want to stand out?” 

 

These aren’t the questions I thought I’d be asking at twenty-one years old. But then again, my prayers weren’t what I expected them to be either:

God, I dream of going to Iraq, of living there, of seeing and being a part of a unified Iraq. But I’m scared. I think, more than anything, that I’m scared you’ll “take this away” from me. That you won’t be faithful, that the wait will be long, that I’ll never reach Kurdistan, that you won’t really fulfill what I think you’ve called me to, that you want be to stay uncomfortable and unhappy so I’ll stay focused on you. But you can’t be that evil of a God. That’s not in your nature, nor is that what you’ve shown to me. I have to stop comparing other’s stories to mine. Help me stay true to You and Your plan for my life, Iraq, or no Iraq. Jesus help me breathe. I love you. ”

 

It was only days later that one of my Iraqi friends living in Kurdistan sent me an article with the following headline: The United Nations and the Pentagon: ISIS has not been defeated and its return is a matter of time. 

 

The article began… “Many officials and experts contend that ISIS has not already been defeated and that returning under this or another name is only a matter of time… ISIS has managed to reorganize its operations in these two countries, especially because local forces there are ‘still unable to remain on high alert for a long time and to ensure that the areas they have controlled are guarded.’ ”

 

It’s hard to concisely pen my exact reaction, but one of which was definitely not “surprise”. I have to admit that my first thought was “I saw this coming”. When the topic of the Islamic State becomes your normal, you begin to expect this kind of news. As I’ve done lots of reading about ISIS, I’ve become more and more aware of just how powerful, complex, and smart they truly are. They operate more like a military than random extremists; in fact, nothing about ISIS is random. They use social media to recruit individuals from all over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. They’re strategic and let nothing go to waste. They have a plan and never waver from that. Though this is not meant to be a compliment, ISIS is potentially the most intelligent terrorist group this world has seen. Welcome to 21st century Islamic extremism. 

 

The thing we must understand about ISIS is their perseverance and unwavering commitment to their beliefs. They wouldn’t give up easily. Despite not having control of Raqqah, Syria or Mosul, Iraq as they previously did in 2018, ISIS is relentless. They are still functional, still carry out attacks, and instill fear wherever they go. It was easy to get caught up in the notion of ISIS being defeated, because that’s what these past five years have been about. But those that follow ISIS closely do they would never be easily dismounted. ISIS still receives funding from a variety of sources and that won’t stop anytime soon: “the organization still has more than $ 400 million hidden in various forms in Syria, Iraq and even in neighboring countries.” 

 

But to those that have already faced the threat of ISIS, such as our students in Iraq, Greece, and Germany, the return of the Islamic State brings new fears. To put it lightly, this is the lemon juice on the salt already on the unhealed wound. Just months ago, back in the beginning of June, Iraqi Yazidis in Kurdistan had to process the reality that their vacant homes and mass graves were being set on fire so they would never be able to return to their hometowns. Go back to look at the past five years, you’ll find story after story of Yazidi and Christian house being ransacked, fathers being shot in front of their families, sons taken to be converted into child soldiers, and women of all ages being taken as sex slaves for members of ISIS. Everything has already been taken from the persecuted minorities in Kurdistan and throughout Syria. And now, ISIS is coming back again.

 

But, we won’t lose hope. We know who wins in the end and whose side we’re on. We know that justice will come and is coming and we know we’re not alone. There are always moments of discouragement, exhaustion, and fear. But hope is bigger than any of it. And hope is here to stay. 

 

August Shipment Loading Day!

It is with great joy that we invite you to attend our upcoming container loading day of our next shipment to Iraq. We’ll pray together and bless the shipment as it gets loaded and sent to the military base in Riverside from which it’ll be sent to their base in Erbil.

We will be loading up 20 pallets that will benefit 20,000 individuals!

This loading event will take place next Tuesday, August 13, at 09:00 AM at our office in Rosemead, CA. We would love to see you all as we bless the shipment and send it off to bless many displaced people, including Christians and Yazidis, in Iraq. We would love any help we can get for this day going towards helping those in need in the Middle East!

Five Years

By Emily Shaffer

Five years. It’s been five years. Five years since the Yazidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS began in Sinjar, Iraq on August 3rd, 2014. In some ways this has felt like the blink of an eye. In some ways it has been. Five years is not that long. Most people that lived to see the atrocities brought on by ISIS and survived, are still alive today. And in other ways, it feels like we have lived many lifetimes in that span of years. We have enough heartbreak, death and devastation, and trauma to last several lifetimes, but we will continue to carry on, smiling. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the tragedy of it all, especially for those that this tragedy is a daily reality. I think of my friends, students, and fellow ROS team members in Iraq. I think of the girls I have come to know and love through our Tech Over Trauma Program and how this day changed their lives forever. I think of Ekhlas, our first student and Ambassador of Hope, who was enslaved to ISIS for several months after they attacked her home. I think of one of my students, Layla (named changed for safety reasons), who calls Sinjar her home as she has relocated many times throughout Iraq and now joins her family in Germany as they seek asylum. But I have to believe there’s hope. There has to be. Because why else would we continue on?

One of my Yazidi friends, Turkiya, currently living in Kurdistan, described the current situation for Yazidis still in Iraq: For five years people have been living in [refugee] camps. Living in the camps is very hard. People do not have a place to go. Children live among the dirt in the camps. The people, IDPs (Internally Displaced People), are very tired living in these camps. Shingal (the Arabic name for Sinjar) is destroyed and there is no safety because of the political conflicts. ISIS has killed people and raped girls. They killed the Yazidis in Iraq because of their religion, as many Muslims do not like the Yazidi religion. People have lost their mother and father. They were killed before their very eyes.

It’s easy to get caught up in what there is not instead of what there is. So today we think of the thousands of people that have received aid- food, medical supplies, and clothes- from dozens of humanitarian organizations. We think of the thousands of girls- mothers and daughters- freed of sexual abuse from the Isalmic State. We think of the new generation of Yazidis and Arabs in Iraq rising up against the violence. We think of our students getting the education they deserve to create a better future. We think of the stories that have been shared and those that have been empowered. But most importantly, we think of how we know Victory is coming. 

And in the same breath, we think of the lives lost and those affected by each one of them. We think of the thousands of women still forced to be sex slaves to ISIS. There are currently almost 3,000 Yazidis still in captivity or missing, and over 6,000 abductees. Over 100,000 individuals have immigrated outside of Iraq because of the rising tensions. We think of the young Yazidi boys drugged into becoming the next generation of terrorist fighters. Lastly, we think of the families separated and sprawled out around the world trying to find each other and start new lives together. 

This reminds us of the work that still needs to be done, and that gives hope. We get to be world changers and peacemakers in seeking to provide healing from the inside out. This anniversary is a marker, showing how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. Because it has to get better from here. We have more knowledge, are capable of more, have more connections and relationships built. We have grown, been stretched, cried and slept, and rejoiced ten times over. We firmly believe that God will continue to be faithful to not just in providing where He is leading us, but in bringing forth justice across the earth. 

Isaiah 42: 1-3 says it well: Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

Therefore, we will work for the safety and reconstruction in Shingal. We will work to increase culture and science. School is very important. We will work to give rights to all those we encounter. Step by step, we will work for the return of the people to their land.

From the words of Turkiya herself: “For five years we have no land, no house. I love life and I want to live in peace… there is no safety. I love my country and wish to live in peace. How I wish we lived in peace in our country.”

What is the hope? The hope is peace. The hope is that we continue to persevere. The hope is that we’re still breathing and fighting and speaking up. The hope is that no matter how long this conflict and genocide lasts, we have joy that will outlast any devastation.