ADFA: A Facebook Post Resulting in an International Grassroots Movement
ADFA (A Demand For Action) has representation in Lebanon, Syria and Armenia. We also have partners in Iraq, Turkey, Poland, and Ukraine. Since Christmas Eve 2023, we have conducted major distributions of food for the homeless in Sweden, which began with a collaboration with the restaurant chain Greek Grill & Bar, during which we distributed food in 23 cities. Since then, we have continued distributing food every Monday at a church in Stockholm.
We have access to hundreds of volunteers in Sweden and in Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Iraq, and Turkey. These volunteers enable our organization to arrange the distribution of food and water to thousands of people in need in just a few hours. All volunteers work for free, with no salary or fee.
ADFA, a recognized human rights advocacy group and charity, started as a social media campaign. Since then, almost a decade has passed. It was in the summer of 2014 that journalist Nuri Kino posted a message on Facebook, asking for help to spread information about the atrocities committed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations against the indigenous populations of Iraq and Syria - 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 New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Sky News, and Times.
ADFA, registered as an association in Sweden since the fall of 2014, has tirelessly worked to assist victims of ISIS violence living in exile, primarily in Lebanon. ADFA has contributed to changing the foreign policies of three American presidents and to getting the UN, EU, the US Congress, and the UK to recognize ISIS genocide and crimes against humanity against the indigenous populations of Iraq and Syria. The organization has also played a role in getting a century-old, largely forgotten genocide recognized by the US government.
ADFA has sent aid shipments with medical supplies, infant formula, sleeping bags, and winter clothes to Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Armenia, and Ukraine. Over the years, ADFA has collected and sent hundreds of tons of food and clothes. For example, after the earthquake in February 2023, 200 tons were sent from Sweden. In addition to the containers and trucks that have been sent, food and water are also purchased and distributed on-site.
During the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey in February 2023, ADFA acted as First Responders. This means that the organization was among the first to reach the victims of natural disasters.
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 pays for emergency surgeries/hospital costs for, for example, women in need of urgent cesarean sections and helps Syriac League to run a dispensary.
At the end of December 2023, a woman named Maha surprised ADFA by thanking the organization on Swedish Radio for the help her family received in February of the same year. No other organization had reached the smallest town in Syria affected by the earthquake, where her family was trapped under the rubble of a high-rise building. ADFA managed to send volunteers to, among other things, rescue Maha's niece who needed an urgent cesarean section. ADFA is praised by celebrities here 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.ADFA provides a voice to unheard minorities and indigenous people at international conferences, writes reports, co-produces documentaries, and is a constant partner at the International Religious Summit. ADFA has contributed to several UN reports.