These wintertime projects are bringing Christmas spirit to Assyrians at home.

Yasmeen Altaji | Dec. 24, 2022

Each year, Assyrian nonprofits around the world organize to bring Christmas spirit to community members at home. Here are a few initiatives taking place this season.

In northern Iraq, Santa’s coming to town

Iraq-based Shlama Foundation partnered with two Europe-based Assyrian nonprofits this year to bring gifts to children in villages in northern Iraq. 

Shlama Foundation has led a Christmas gift drive for children in Iraq since its inception in 2014 at the onset of ISIS occupation, according to founder Noor Matti. This year, it partnered with Sweden-based Assyrians Without Borders to fund the “majority” of the project and Germany-based SOS 1915 which sponsored the Duhok and Ain Sifni stops, Matti said.

“Shlama has become this organization where if there's any organizations around the world that want to help our people, but they're not based in Iraq, they fund us to do it,” Matti said.

The organization’s stops in Iraq this year include the entire villages of Bartella, Tel Keppe, Batnaya, Baqopa and Ain Sifni, as well as two kindergartens in Baghdeda, a kindergarten in Duhok and some displaced children in Ankawa, according to Matti.

“These kids don't really have that many activities,” Matti told The Word. “Mental health, of course, is a big issue for people in Iraq because of the war and the trauma.” 

Matti said communities continue to face a lack of mental health and wellbeing resources.

“We try to help the young ones with these kinds of things to give them happy memories to replace the sad memories they have in their heads.”

Children receive gifts in Bartella at Shlama Foundation’s 2022 Sandooqe’d Santa project. (Photos/Shlama Foundation)

Shlama expects the project, which is already underway, to be complete by Dec. 30.  

In Iraq and Armenia, presents and warmth

In its first-ever project in Baghdad, the US-based Etuti Institute delivered gifts to children at Our Lady of Salvation church on Thursday.

The project is part of a threefold fundraiser also including a Christmas gift drive for children in Armenia and a call for wood supply to provide heat to Assyrian households in Armenia. The organization raised just over $17,000 for the initiative.

Our Lady of Salvation, a Syriac Catholic Church located in the capital, was the site of a 2010 massacre carried out by an Al-Qaeda affiliate. Gunmen entered during a Sunday evening mass and began firing randomly, killing 58 people. At the time, it was described as the worst massacre in Iraq’s history since the US invasion in 2003. 

This week proved a striking contrast to the church’s history. Photos from Thursday’s event depicted scenes of laughter and color, adults donning Santa hats and children boasting boxes of new toys. 

“It’s important for Etuti to start our first Christmas celebration at Our Lady of Salvation Church,” Etuti’s founding president Savina Dawood told The Word, “the church that endured a massacre 12 years ago, the church that has become the symbol of hope and resistance for our existence in our homeland.”

The organization will continue delivering gifts at other locations across Iraq’s capital and into Armenia.

In northern Iraq, heat for frigid temperatures

The Assyrian Aid Society’s Warm Winter in Assyria campaign is bringing heating supplies to Assyrian with limited resources in northern Iraq.

The organization said in a statement this year’s campaign would provide heat to about 1,250 families across 26 “remote Assyrian villages” in Iraq’s north.

AAS did not respond to The Word’s requests for comment. 

While Iraq faces sweltering heat in the summer, its northern villages can reach freezing temperatures and bear inches of snow in the harsh winter months.With many villages lacking infrastructure for heat and road clearing, staying warm and finding transport can prove challenging. AAS said it will provide kerosene to families in need. 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article referred to Noor Matti as the founder and president of Shlama Foundation. Matti is the founder and a volunteer.