Heating Oil for the Poor

Heating Oil for the Poor

Or: A little bit is at least better than noting...

 Iraq is one of the countries with the largest oil-reserves worldwide - but otherwise thousands of IDPs in Iraq even don´t have any heating oil to get a warmed up shelter during cold and rainy winter days and nights.

Just a few hours before leaving Iraq once again and travelling back to Germany, i made - knowing, that it would only be a very, very small gesture - the spontaneous decision to do what i was able to do and invest 150 $ to provide heating oil to at least some families.

I was thinking about some yazidi families that have to spend already the third winter in simple tents and windy shelters, as they did not find place in orgenized camps.

But it should turn out very soon, that this plan was absoultely unpracticable. A friend told me: If you are going to deliver heating oil to ten families in a place, where 100 families live, this will cause a lot of tensions among the people there. So better wait until you will be able to provide oil ta all the families there and give the ten bottles of oil to poor people in another place, where it will cause less tensions.

The oil was ordered, there were only some hours before I had to leave and go to the airport… So I asked myself, what to do now?

Of course, I had been offered to cancel the ordered oil, but that was not, what I intended to do, as then noone would have any help. So I finally decided to distribute the 10 bottles, each filled with 22 liters of heating oil, to poor IDP families in Alqosh.

The first stop was a former school building in the center of Alqosh´s old town, where six extremely poor IDP families live. Some days before I had visited them for the first time with the members of a local NGO that were distributing some Christmas gifts to them, so I knew, how needy they are. And I was quite shocked, when members of that families told me, that during more than two years they had not been supplied with heating oil from anyone – a sentence I should hear repeatedly on that Dec. 30 of 2016.

Its just too many IDP families that are depending for 100% on help from outside, as they have nothing (they lost everything, when they had to flee ISIS in 2014) and also have no chance for earning an income. Of course, especially the churches and many organisations d a lot of great work in supporting those people. But they can´t cover all the needs, that´s the problem.

So it is especially old and sick people, that suffer during winter time, as their health gets worse and their situation turns from bad to more bad with every month passing by…

It was only a small help – but I know, I have been able to bring at least a little bit of joy to some of those people (also I know that 22 liters of heating oils are only enough to provide warmth for some few hours). But I hope, on my next visit I will be able to refill the bottles (we asked them to give them back for refillment) and maybe, with the help of other people, be also able to provide more suffering people with heating oil.

Teresa from Tel Esqof - will she ever return home?

It depends on the sun, where Teresa is sitting. Every day she sits outside of the refuge, she and her family found in Alqosh after they had to flee from ISIS in 2014.

While she sits there she is sewing traditional clothes of Tel Esqof, her hometown. Tel Esqof is now a ghost-town. Only Peshmerga and a command of NPU is living there. Many of the intact houses have been destroyed during the massive attack ISIS performed the 3rd of May 2016.

Teresa Daoud Ishak is 80 years old. Will she ever be able to return home?

The children of their Age had no normal Childhood

I met these children when i was walking around in Alqosh to take some pictures of the setting sun. From far they saw me and shouted "Picture! Picture!", so i went towards them and took some pictures.

I don´t know their names. And i don´t know, if they are from Alqosh or if they are IDPs, diesplaced from the nearby christian villages of the Nineva plains.

But what i know, ist that they all had noch normal childhood, as two years ago, when ISIS entered and overran the Nineva plains they all experienced traumatizing things.

All the people of the Nineva plains fled in a hurry during that days. Many fled to Alqosh and from there - together with Alqosh´s people up into the mountais to find refuge.

These children - and so many other children in the Middle East - need help. They need to experience trustable security and stable conditions. 

To build this, a lot of help and support from outside is necessary, as all the people of the Nineva plains are more or less traumatized. They don´t trust anyone any more. So they deserve help...

I can only help by spreading pictures and talk about what happened and what is the need. I know my abilities are just like a small drop of water on a hot stone...

"Global" families - very typical for Iraqi Christians

"Global" families, very typical for Iraqi Christians

Basiem runs a small shop near the old market of Alqosh, Nineva, Iraq. While i am walking by in the hot sun, he invites me to come in and drink some water and the obligatoric tea.

We communicate with hand and feet and a mixture of my little arabic knowledge and all the english he knows. What he tells me is absolutely typical for the Iraqi Christians (and, of course, many people of the Middle East:

Basiem has five sisters: Two of them live in Australia, to in New Zealand and the fifth in Canada. His brother is in Detroit, USA. One Cousin lives in Germany, another in Sweden. His daughter lives in Canada and his son, who is a doctor, moved to Amman in Jordan.

And he telles, that he is old and sees no future in Iraq, so he also wants to leave...

"Nine-One" 2016 - more than only a military victory for NPU (Ninive Protection Units)

On first of September 2016 the NPU (Ninive Protection Units) performed their first mayor totally self-conducted operation in the fight against ISIS in North Iraq and successfully liberated the village of Badanah. It was the first time ever that NPU, which is an assyrian christian unit incorporated into the armed forces of Iraq, launched an attack backed by air support of the US led coalition.

After the successful operation, media around the globe reported about this operation - in several countries and languages, And this was the even more importand victory than the success in the battlefield!

Why?

It´s quite simple: Because this success broke down the walls of silence that were built up around the NPU during the past months, mostly by the kurdish Peshmerga forces and the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) in Erbil. As you may know, the Peshmerga forces are controling the autonomous region of Kurdistan and also those parts of the Nineva province, that are not occupied by by the terrorists of ISIS.

So, as General Aboosh Behnam, the commander of the NPU, stated personally to me in several interviews and talks, visitors and journalists never got permission to visit NPU forces in the frontline areas. Neither at Tel Esqof, where NPU is (next to to Peshmerga and other forces that are under command of Peshmerga) present with about 100 fighters, nor at the Khazer river, where NPU is present with another about 100 men (these men performed the attack of September 1st).

Even journalists being at Tel Esqof for a visit and knowing that NPU is also there (just around the corner of the local Peshmerga Headquarters) did not get permission to visit NPU.

Yes, you may think that this is crazy, but it is just the plain truth. One of the main reasons surely is the fact, that NPU´s first aim is their independence. Why?

Some months before ISIS attacked and conquered the Nineva-plains in 2014, the people of the Assyrian/Aramean monority (as well as the Yazidi and the members of other minorities) were told to hand out their weapons to the kurdish authorities and the Peshmerga claimed to protect them. But when ISIS came, neither Peshmerga, nor the Iraqi Army took efforts to protect them and stop ISIS. So hundreds of thousands only had the chance to save their life by running away leaving everything behind.

It was a bitter experience, and many Assyrians/Arameans lost any trust into the promised protection. So they thought about what they can do to avoid finding themselves helpless once again one day. It was a long way from there to September 1st of 2016, but that´s another story...

Fact is, that from now on, the world knows about the existence of the brave assyrian/aramean fighters of NPU that are actively and successful engaged in liberating the Nineva plains. So hopfully the blockade of journalists will end soon and it will be possible to visit NPU forces in Tel Esqof and in Khazer.

Do you see the desire in my eyes?

Do you see the desire in her eyes?

This girl is dressed in the colourful traditional clothes of the Nineva-plains. She had to flee from ISIS, when she was a little child, when the islamic terrorists came in summer 2014 and conquered the Nineva-plains. Since more than two years her family spend their life in Ashti2 IDP-camp near Ankawa - and there is no hope for them that things are changing.

In her eyes you can see this one question you can see this ONE question that everyone in the IDP-camps of North-Iraq is asking: When will we be able to return to our villages, to our houses to live a normal life? Will this day ever come?

My home is in the Nineva-Plains. ISIS conquered my parents home and village. How long will i have to stay in Ashti2 IDP-Camp in Anakwa until me and my familiy will be allowed to return to our home?

This gilr is wearing the typical traditional clothing of the Nineva-plains.

Abuna Bashar Khtea: A role model of faith

 Abuna Bashar Khtea: A role model of faith

Bashar Khtea, a chaldean-catholic priest from the Nineva-Plains is one of those iraqi priests that can be role-models of faith for us.

As hundreds of thousands of other assyro-aramean Christians he hat to flee from his village in the Ninive-Palins in August 2014 and found shelter in Ankawa, the mostly Christian-inhabited city in the periphery of Erbil, the north-iraqian capital.

Families from his village and surrounding villages gathered around him. Together they moved to "Shebab Merkez"-Camp outside of Ankawa. A camp of container homes around a hall that was used as church. Before going there, the displaced people had had to live in tents for some months.

In "Schebab Merkez" about 150 families were living under very umcomfortable circumstances, quite different to e.g. Ashti2-Camp, where there are real roads between the container-homes, "Shebab Merkez" was built at a narrow plave, allowing only small pathways between the containers.

I met Abuna Abuna Bashar Khtea on Palm Sunday of 2016 - my friend from nearby camp "Amal Hope Center" had invited me (and August) to take part in the Holy Mass and the Celebrations of Palm Sunday at "Shebab Merkez".

It was a morning with cold, strong wind. When Holy Mass was finished, the wind blew rain through the camp. And there was w moment of consideration. But then Abuna Bashar announced: No, we despite the bad weather conditions we will walk the procession.

So the parish walked singing through the rain, around the whole camp - maybe a little bit fast than they had done with good weather. But that was not what counted.

It was just the other way round: For me, as a western European, where Palm Sunday usually consists of a very short "procession", which will never lead through rainy weather, this was a strong testimony of faith! First some children, then the Abuna with the cross, then the parish people. And it was feelable, how deep his love to the crucified Lord is. A love, that is a source of power for him.

The deep inner joy in his voice and his eyes, when he intonated the worship songs after the procession - oh, how much would i appreciate to have some priests like him here in Europe!

The priests of Iraq, they have a very deep face. They are challenged with managing worldly things even more as our European priests are, as the quite often have to manage the circumstances of daily life for their flock. But they always have an open ear for the questions and needs of their people. They give advice, they encourage - and from their heart they spread love and joy in Jesus.

Yes, i was very thankful that we, the strangers, were welcome in love and allowed to join the celebrations.

In June i wanted to visit Abuna Bashar again. But Camp "Schebab Merkez" was not existing any more. I was told, that the displaced persons of the camp were able to move to small new built houses the church has built for them.´The camp was closed and dismantled. I was sad i did not find the time to search for Abuna Bashar Khtea. But as soon a s possible i will - if God alows - visit hom and some of his faithful to see and hear, how they are.