We learned on Monday that newborns have become some of the latest victims of ISIS evil. Deadly cold took the lives of seven infants last week in RUN Ministries‘ “Community of Hope” refugee camps. If the barbaric terror group had not forced these families from their homes in northern Iraq, those seven innocent babies would most likely still be alive.
RUN president Eric Watt got word late last week that more than 50 children have been born in one of their six refugee camps over the past three months. Forced from their homes by ISIS terror, and with no hospital available, most of these mothers gave birth in a tent. But then, once the baby arrives, the parents face the incredibly difficult challenge of raising their newborn in a refugee camp.
Most of the ISIS survivors in RUN’s “Community of Hope” refugee camps and safe homes have lost everything, even loved ones, to terrorist violence. These families are totally dependent on Eric and his teams of volunteers for food, clean water, medicine, clothes, blankets, and other essentials.
With more than 36,000 Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities under their care and protection, RUN is doing the best they can with very limited resources. That’s why Eric says RUN Ministries is doing everything it can to make sure this kind of shocking and senseless tragedy doesn’t happen again. In an email to me yesterday, Eric wrote:
On Monday, I told you how one of our key suppliers generously offered to advance RUN heavy-duty blankets for the 36,000 Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities under our care and protection. Nothing would make me happier this Thanksgiving week than to tell him that we’ll take all the blankets we need. But the truth is that RUN just does not have the funds to pay for them.It costs $15 to purchase and ship a heavy-duty blanket to northern Iraq. That’s an expense of more than $500,000 to deliver just one of these blankets to each of the 36,000 refugees under our care and protection. I understand that half a million dollars is a lot of money, and I know that raising those funds in the face of an impending winter-weather crisis seems impossible. But we serve a big God, and we have friends like you to help.
Babies are literally dying in RUN’s “Community of Hope” refugee camps because their parents can’t keep them warm!
I had my staff check the weather forecast for the mountains of northern Iraq. The overnight temperature there tonight is expected to drop to around 40 degrees for the rest of the week. On Saturday, a nighttime low of 33 degrees is expected.
We need to help RUN Ministries get as many blankets as possible, as quickly as possible, to ISIS survivors in their “Community of Hope” refugee camps and safe homes. Eric and his teams are praying for and expecting a financial miracle this Thanksgiving.
LifeNews Note: Mat Staver is the Chairman of Liberty Counsel Action and Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.