Ties That Bind

Detroit Chaldeans’ historic trip to Iraq

By Cal Abbo

In late November, an historic delegation of community leaders from Detroit’s Chaldean community and several U.S. legislators toured northern Iraq and took notice of the living situation of the Chaldean families remaining there. Working with many different people and organizations, the delegation has planned many programs to support the community in Iraq.

In recent years, the Chaldean Community Foundation (CCF) made attempts to go to Iraq for this purpose; now, the trip has finally been completed. Earlier this year, the CCF hired two contractors in Alqosh with the express goal of surveying and taking stock of the land and Chaldean population. That base will serve as the facilitator for many different projects affecting the region.

The trip was attended by several notable community members, including president of the CCF Martin Manna, Mike Sarafa, Dave Nona, Chris Yatooma, Ismat Karmo, Christopher Denha, Dr. Musib Gappy, Wisam Kashat, Arkan Jonna, Robert Dekelaita, and others.

These leaders and those who received them in Iraq also hosted a delegation of four U.S. House Representatives: Elissa Slotkin, Katie Porter, Colin Allred, and Mark Takano. The purpose of the trip, Manna said, was to advocate for the Nineveh community in terms of tangible support and aid.

Many of the projects conceived on this trip are already underway. Most notably, the CCF is working to establish an administrative unit within the Nineveh Plain. This would include self-policing, a plan to stop demographic changes and land confiscation, and a reinvestment in Chaldean villages.

Without their own police force or autonomous administration, Christians in Nineveh are often taken advantage of. They are subject to increasing amounts of land confiscation, physical threats from terrorist groups, and excessive checkpoints between their towns. Until they organize and establish independent policing, these hardships will only worsen.

During the trip, the delegation met with many high-ranking members of the region: Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Governor of Nineveh Najm Al Jubouri, Governor of Duhok Ali Tatar, Minister of Interior Reber Ahmed, and some of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parliament’s Christian representatives.

For the KRG, Ano Abdoka, the Minister of Transportation and Communications, helped facilitate much of the trip. Abdoka is Chaldean and is perhaps the highest-ranking Chaldean government official in the Kurdistan Region.

The delegation also met with many religious officials throughout northern Iraq. In Erbil, the group met with Chaldean Bishop Bashar Warda, a community and religious leader. He helped found two crucial projects in the ancient city: the Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) and Maryamana Hospital. Both are intended to aid the underserved Christian community in the city.

Each person contributed a certain specialty and expertise to the mission.

With support from the Chaldean American Association for Health Professionals (CAAHP), Dr. Musib Gappy has begun making plans to introduce a dental school at CUE. Efforts are also being made to establish a student exchange program with CUE and some local universities here. This will help bridge cultural differences between the homeland and Detroit and bring some fresh perspective into the local Chaldean community.

These relationships and many more will help the CCF in its new efforts on the ground in Iraq. The contractors in Alqosh will be continuously supported, with plans to expand the number of contractors that contribute to the mission as well as the number of projects handled.

One of these projects is a micro-loan program that will support Chaldean-owned businesses in Nineveh, tentatively titled, “Product of Nineveh.” Christians are often economically disadvantaged for many reasons, but even a small loan can make a world of difference for budding entrepreneurs in Nineveh.

Chris Yatooma, who recently purchased Citizens State Bank, committed $50,000 to the fund. The CCF expects to match that with other donations with a goal of raising of $1,000,000.

The delegation also visited many of our historical villages, seeing firsthand the plight of those who remain and at the same time what little remains of the villages in general. Much of the village population, according to those on the trip, were driven out to the cities or other countries and have not returned.

In Batnaya, Wisam Kashat is leading a project to support a special needs center there. Like the situation in many other villages, the center is underfunded and needs a lot of support to take care of the Chaldean community with special needs.

Dave Nona is leading a project meant to support agriculture in Nineveh by building new wells near the villages. Lately in Iraq, water has been scarce because of the weather and the mitigated flow from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This effort will make it much easier for these communities to become self-sustaining.

Nona has long dreamed of founding a Jesuit school in Nineveh. He attributes his own upbringing to the Jesuits and the education they gave him growing up in Iraq. His only wish is to return the favor, and he will lead a project to found such a school in Alqosh.

In general, many children from the villages and cities need medical support that is not easily available in the region. The CCF has promised to help with some of these treatments and coordinate annual medical missions through the Chaldean American Association for Health Professionals.

The situation is much better in the cities when compared with village life. Although many Chaldeans recently resettled in cities like Dohuk and Erbil, the community there is faring well and Chaldeans are doing better economically. The CCF announced plans to make Nineveh a sister state with Michigan and Dohuk a sister city with Detroit. This would connect the two communities in an official way.

Finally, while on the trip it became evident that there is much to do and the efforts will take a lot of time. A consensus was reached that there should be annual delegations to keep track of the projects that were discussed and to maintain good relations between the diaspora and the homeland.

The Chaldean community here in Michigan is poised to bring hope to the hearts of their brethren remaining in Iraq.