Joy and Sadness in the Land of My Ancestors

GUEST column

I was part of a Chaldean Community Foundation (CCF) delegation that recently visited Erbil and the Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain in the land of our ancestors, Iraq. The trip was wonderful and memorable with many occasions of joy, mixed with a lot of sadness and despair about the condition of our people’s villages. In this column, I will attempt to outline the heights and depths of the emotion that I experienced during the trip, together with some ideas for projects that can be implemented to give hope to our people in Iraq.

Visiting the land of my ancestors 54 years after leaving Iraq was definitely a source of joy. Witnessing the faith and courage of the remaining Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac people (hereafter referred to collectively as “Christians”), in the face of many hardships and difficulties made me proud and hopeful for the future of the community.

Repeatedly during our visit, I was impressed with the connections and influence that Martin Manna and the CCF have established with leaders in the Kurdistan Region and the government of Mosul. This was obvious in the protection, support, and respect that the delegation received throughout the trip.

We met with many dignitaries and community and faith leaders. The courageous and impactful work of Bishop Warda, the Chaldean Bishop of Erbil, in his dedication to education and health by establishing the Catholic University of Erbil, and Maryamana Hospital in Ankawa, was inspiring and uplifting.

The meeting with the director, Fr. Antoine Paumand S.J., and staff of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) in Ankawa was equally inspiring. The JSR provides essential services to refugees and displaced people in areas of education and healthcare as well as food and other necessities. JRS does not discriminate, serving equally the needs of Christian refugees as well as Muslims, Yazidis, and Mandaeans.

Another bright spot in the visit was the meeting with the director of the Assyrian Aid Society (AIS), an engineer named Younan Lazar, and his assistant, incredible individuals who are doing wonderful and impressive work for all the Christian villages in the Kurdistan Region and the Nineveh Plain. These services range from providing teachers that teach Sureth (the native language of our people), to repairing damaged buildings, to providing a mobile medical van to go to different villages to provide basic health services.

I am also excited about the hiring of two young, energetic, and committed men, Ghazwan and Hanan, as contractors for the CCF in the area. Hopefully, this will be the nucleus of a full-fledged office of the CCF to serve the needs of the community and oversee the implementation of projects that CCF is considering.

And finally, the active involvement of Christian politicians in the Kurdistan Regional Government and in the municipal administration of towns in the Nineveh Plain that are part of the Mosul government gives me hope for the future of the region.

The other side of the coin

As hope-filled as our journey was, there was also much cause for despair. Hearing about the continued migration and the desire for migration of our people from the Christian villages and towns was discouraging to me; I imagine it is much more disheartening to the people that remain.

As I walked through the alleys of Telkaif, I wondered to myself that, but for the grace of God, I and my family could have been in the same position that most of the remaining Christians find themselves. With that, I would have hoped for the support and help of my people in the Diaspora. It hurt my heart to see so many Chaldean family homes that were destroyed, deserted, or inhabited by outsiders.

We witnessed a deep sense of anxiety on the part of people of the Nineveh Plain about the lack of security and protection. Too-frequent check points on the roads connecting the villages of the Nineveh Plain does nothing to relieve their anxiety; the check points are manned by either Kurdistan forces or militia aligned with the central government and do nothing but delay and obstruct the movement of people, and especially goods, that are needed for a sustainable economy in the Nineveh Plain.

The neglect of the villages in the Nineveh Plain by the central government is evident. Roads and buildings are in disrepair, reasonably priced seeds and fertilizer for farming and in general are not provided, and there are inadequate educational and medical services for the people. The lack of unity in the Christian Churches about how best to achieve the aspirations of the Christian community does not help.

Adding to their burdens, the increasing frequency of drought from less rainfall due to global warming and the resulting harmful impact on grain farming, which is the main source of income for most of the residents of the Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain, makes it difficult even to eke out a living, much less thrive. There remains a lingering sense of hopelessness and despair about the future of the remaining Christians in the area.

Help from the U.S.

Our Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac people in the Detroit area and the rest of the United States have been blessed beyond measure with strong communities of faith, with extraordinary business success, and with many professional achievements.

If we are truly people of faith, we need to take to heart the Gospel admonition “To whom much is given, much is required.” With this in mind, I would like to ask our community here to consider supporting and funding projects to give hope to our remaining Christian people in the Homeland.

The following lists some projects that the CCF is considering supporting: expanding the local CCF office in the region; establishing a micro-loaning program to support small business formations and startups for Iraqi Christians; studying and evaluating the feasibility of drilling several Artesian wells in selected villages to provide irrigation for farming to supplement the dwindling of rainwater due to global warming; helping establish a new dental school at the Catholic University of Erbil by providing some funding for dental chairs and technical and academic support through affiliation with a local dental school in the U.S.; appealing to the worldwide society of Jesus (Jesuits) to help found a Jesuit High School, probably in Alqosh, for the poor, refugees, and other underserved students of all faiths in the area; and establishing a program to send medical teams from the U.S. to provide medical and dental services to underserved towns and villages in the Kurdistan and Nineveh Plain regions in coordination with local authorities.

These are just a few of the initiatives that are being considered to help our brethren in Iraq. I hope that you will find it within your heart to support some of these projects with your time, talent, or treasure. Visit the CFF website, chaldeanfoundation.org, for ways to support. God bless you always.