Mosul: Reaching Families on the Front Lines

Go where the fight is.

That’s been our response throughout the battle for Mosul, ISIS’ largest remaining stronghold in Iraq. Don’t just sit in the relative safety of the refugee camps, away from the front lines, waiting for the most vulnerable families to reach us there. Run to where they are fleeing.

Even before the battle “officially” began—Iraqi forces were advancing well before the Mosul Offensive was announced last month—we’ve been following right behind, helping families on the front lines, the moment they are liberated from ISIS.

For weeks, we served at a front-line screening center near a town called Qayarrah, about 40 miles south of Mosul. Families arriving here were screened by Iraqi security officials before being moved to a displacement camp. Many had to wait for hours or even days in the desert heat. Some had gone days without eating, or were dehydrated, or badly injured by ISIS.

They had nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to receive medical attention, nowhere to even relieve themselves.

Until you showed up.

You provided massive hospitality tents where just-liberated families could rest in the shade. You provided rugs for them to sit on. Toilets they could use in privacy and dignity. You provided a medical tent filled with beds, medications, and supplies. You provided a doctor to mend their wounds.

And when the fighting moved north, closer to Mosul, you went north too.

You just helped open a new welcome center for refugees fleeing Mosul, closer to the front lines—so families do not have to travel as far, so we can provide the care they need sooner.

The new welcome center started receiving refugees this week. Just today, while all eyes were on the U.S. election results, you were quietly serving on the front lines, welcoming 313 newly displaced people—including three with disabilities and one pregnant woman.

You are showing up in the hardest places, providing a warm welcome to just-liberated families, and making sure they have what they need to hold on and hold out.

Thank you for going with us to the front lines—again.


Provide food, water, and medical care for families caught up in the fight for Mosul. $65 can feed a family for a month.

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