ADFA: From a Social Media Campaign to an Acclaimed International Advocacy and Aid Organization
ADFA began as a social media campaign. Since then, nearly a decade has passed. In the summer of 2014, journalist Nuri Kino posted a Facebook message requesting assistance in spreading information about the atrocities committed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations against Iraq and Syria's indigenous populations - Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans, Armenians, and Yazidis. People from nineteen countries joined to become activists.
The campaign gained international attention and quickly grew. It received coverage from prominent newspapers such as the New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Sky News, and Times.
ADFA, which was registered as an association in Sweden in the fall of 2014, has worked tirelessly to assist victims of ISIS violence in exile, primarily in Lebanon. ADFA has helped to change three American presidents' foreign policies and convince the UN, EU, US Congress, and the UK to recognize ISIS genocide and crimes against humanity against Iraq and Syria's indigenous populations. The organization has also helped get the US government to recognize a century-old, largely forgotten genocide.
ADFA has sent aid to Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Armenia, and Ukraine, including medical supplies, infant formula, sleeping bags, and winter clothing. Over the years, ADFA has collected and distributed hundreds of tons of food and clothing. For example, following the February 2023 earthquake, 200 tons were sent from Sweden. In addition to the containers and trucks that have been delivered, food and water are purchased and distributed on-site.
ADFA served as the first responders to earthquakes in Syria and Turkey in February 2023. This means that the organization was among the first to assist the victims of the natural disaster.
From March to May 2022, ADFA helped 3800 Ukrainians to Sweden, mainly mothers and children. We also assisted many to Spain and Ireland.
In Lebanon, ADFA collaborates with organizations that can help with emergency surgeries and hospital costs, such as for women who require urgent cesarean sections.
At the end of December 2023, a woman named Maha surprised ADFA by thanking the organization on Swedish Radio for the assistance her family received in February of that year. No other organization had reached the smallest town in Syria devastated by the earthquake, where her family was trapped beneath the rubble of a high-rise structure. ADFA was able to send volunteers to, among other things, rescue Maha's niece, who required an emergency cesarean section.
ADFA is praised by celebrities in Sweden but also, for example, in the USA, where Cher herself wrote "we need you" to ADFA on Twitter. ADFA has received several recognitions and awards for its work. The most recent is from June 2024; ADFA is a finalist for the Global Good Award in the category Humanitarian Response Champions. The finals, which reveal the winners, will take place on October 3, 2024.
ADFA represents underrepresented minorities and indigenous people at international conferences, writes reports, co-produces documentaries, and is a regular partner at the International Religious Summit. ADFA has also contributed to various UN reports.