Group aids Christian refugees

A Charleston-based humanitarian organization that defends the rights of Christians around the world is taking action to help Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

The organization, called Remember, is sending a ministry team to Jordan to set up medical clinics and provide health services to those who have fled Iraq because of sectarian violence, according to Executive Director Gabe Waddell.

The conflict in Iraq has driven many people to neighboring countries, including many Christians and other religious minorities.

The medical team will leave July 4 and spend nine days in Jordan, Waddell said.

Sectarian violence has affected nearly everyone in Iraq, and Christians often get caught in the crossfire, he said. Sometimes they are targeted.

In January 2007, Waddell and his colleagues traveled to the Mideast on a survey trip during which they met a number of refugees, including a Christian pastor who had been kidnapped and tortured by an Islamic militia, he said.

The pastor had been tied to a bed frame and shocked while his brother listened to the screams via telephone. The captors were looking for ransom money, Waddell said.

Tens of thousands of Iraq's Christians, who comprise about 3 percent of the country's population of 25 million, have fled for Syria and Jordan. There, they struggle to get by, Waddell said. Considered temporary visitors by governments of host countries, refugees are not eligible for regular employment or state aid.

"Those refugees are often denied some of the basic ways of making a living. It really is an economic strain," on both the refugee and the state, he said.

Remember has made two previous medical trips — to Thailand and Burma. It focuses on aiding widows and orphans of martyrs or those imprisoned because of their Christian faith, Waddell said.

Remember's operating costs are underwritten by the Bostic Law Firm. For more information on Remember and its trip to Jordan, visit www.RememberThose.org and www.RememberAmbassadors.com.

Reach Adam Parker at aparker@postandcourier.com.