Top image: Distribution of relief aid in a village in northern Iraq
Henrik Ertner says: A young Christian man I met named Medhat (name changed for security reasons) escaped Islamic State.
The Islamic State arrested everyone in Medhat's village, where most of the inhabitants were Shia Muslims, and examined their ID cards. When they saw the name Ali, they made short work of it. It shows that the person is a Shia Muslim.
Medhat saw 97 people die
Medhat says: "I saw 97 people die in front of me and when they got to me, I thought I was going to die too. But they just looked at the front of my ID card, which said I was Kurdish, and they just said: 'Well, you're one of us (i.e. Sunni Muslim, ed.), so just drive on."
The Islamic State jihadists did not turn Medhat's ID card over and look at the back, where it says he is a Christian. He knew Henrik Ertner knew his ID card: "Look, here is my ID card. Turn it over and look - it says I'm a Christian. If they had seen it, I would have been finished!"
Did not speak for 14 days
It was difficult for Medhat to say more, but his mother said that for 14 days he didn't speak to anyone at all, just sat in his room. "Sometimes he cried. It changed him in many ways, what he had experienced."
Medhat and his mother made their home in the Nineveh Plain but in Baghdad, but they also spend a lot of time in Erbil, from where they help displaced people in several parts of the Kurdish autonomous region.
Medhat is now helping others
Medhat is not among those who have fled Iraq during this time. Instead, he is engaged in relief work for the many thousands fleeing Islamic State.
With your help, he and many other Christian volunteers can distribute aid and bring hope to people displaced in Iraq at this time.
You can light a candle this Christmas - a candle that brings warmth into the cold tents of refugees. Tens of thousands had to flee from Islamic State to northern Iraq in August. They need food, medicine, and warm blankets and fuel so they don't starve and freeze this winter.
- It costs approximately DKK 975 to ensure a refugee family has warm clothes, shoes, mattresses, blankets and fuel this winter.
- It costs approximately 585 DKK to ensure a refugee family has food and medicine for a month.
Refugee families will feel that people in Denmark stand with them in the cold winter time.
