ICF launches Campaign to Fund 100 Hope Bus Scholarships
December 13, 2021, Washington, DC – The Iraqi Children Foundation (ICF) today launched a new Hope Bus Scholarship program to give donors an opportunity to invest in individual scholarships for 100 at-risk Iraqi girls and boys at the Hope Buses.
A happy girl graduates from the Hope Bus
ICF's "Hope Bus" project is an initiative to fight child labor, early marriage, lack of education, malnutrition, and physical and emotional wounds after years of war and poverty. These colorful, eye-catching buses provide academic tutoring, healthy lunches, psycho-social services, and childhood fun to some of Iraq's poorest and most at-risk orphans and street kids.
While actual cost of a single scholarship is $100 per month, this week (December 13-17) they are available at $85 a month (with a 200% match on one-month) making them meaningful and timely holiday gifts in honor of a loved one or colleague.
Years of war, displacement, and poverty have left thousands of Iraqi children at risk of child labor, lack of education, and exploitation by human traffickers and criminals. According to the World Bank (Oct 2021), " Learning levels in Iraq are among the lowest in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region..." The US Department of Labor's recent report on child labor in Iraq notes that children beg on the streets, work at dumps and factories, and are trafficked for sex and labor.
As ICF Chairman Grant Felgenhauer put it during a Hope Bus visit, "The work that is done here goes directly into the bloodstream of the Iraqi people and the neediest sections of the Iraqi economy."
The transformation of the first Hope Bus is featured below.
Individuals or organizations interested in additional opportunities to invest in additional Hope Buses, underwriting multiple scholarships, or focusing on scholarships for at-risk girls, may contact ICF Executive Director Elizabeth McRae at liz@iraqichildren.org
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The Iraqi Children Foundation (ICF) intervenes in the lives of children who are at risk of abuse, neglect, and exploitation by criminals, traffickers, and extremists. ICF is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity (EIN 26-1394773). Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information, visit www.iraqichildren.org