The Iraqi Children Foundation (ICF), the United States’ largest charity devoted exclusively to advocacy and support for Iraq’s children, premiered today a fresh, impactful design and message for the cause.
ICF Board Chairman Mohammed Khudairi explained:
“Today, we reintroduce ourselves to Americans and the international community with a fresh voice. For over a decade, ICF has intervened with love and hope in the lives of children who are vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and exploitation by criminals, traffickers, and extremists.
“We have invested in life-changing education, legal protection, psychosocial services, nutrition, and other support for the most marginalized children: orphans, street kids, children displaced by war, child laborers, and disabled kids. We are now standing with them in the face of new dangers from COVID-19.“
Liz McRae, Executive Director, said:
“We started this process in early 2020 and poured our hearts and souls into creating a new image that would accurately depict who we are at our core, as an organization. As COVID-19 began to dramatically impact the world and our work, we doubled down on our efforts to refocus on our organization and the way we do things.
“Our mission and vision are strong, and we recognized the importance of the right tools to communicate messages driving real and meaningful change. We are committed to ‘thinking big’ to address the critical need for orphans and street children in Iraq, now more than ever.“
ICF’s voice for Iraq’s children is reflected in the visual identity the organization debuted today. It reflects a modern, bright, optimistic and inclusive outlook, focused on the deepest needs of children to belong to their family, community, and nation.
This idea is presented in the graphic pattern, with four elements surrounding the map of Iraq: the sunshine symbolizing hope, growth in the form of the date palm leaf and fruit of Iraq, and water marking the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which represent the historic position of Iraq as the seat of civilization.
The tagline – Protect. Nurture. Empower. – codifies ICF’s core mission to ensure all children are safe, have a voice, and are empowered to reach their full potential.
* Cuneiform inscriptions based on the ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia.
That mission – to protect, nurture, and empower – is manifested in ICF’s projects in recent years, including a “Street Lawyers” project providing legal protection and aid to more than 1,200 children and securing legal identity documents needed for school and nutrition and other benefits for 1,300 children.
Social services – including services for mental health, ending abuse, stopping child labor, and medical care – have been delivered to 1,006 children. Two child-friendly and colorful “Hope Buses” in a desperately poor neighborhood provide tutoring and nutritious meals to empower an average of 100 orphans and street children each school day.
Some of these initiatives have been seriously impacted by COVID-19 related curfews in Baghdad and other obstacles to service operations.
ICF is a non-partisan, non-sectarian tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity with top Platinum status on Guidestar. It is also listed on the U.S. government’s workplace giving platform, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC #95191). Board and Advisor leadership includes veterans, former Ambassadors, top U.S. child welfare experts, Iraqi-American professionals, and business executives. ICF initiatives in Iraq are executed with competent, trusted Iraqi NGO partners who know local communities and urgent needs best. ICF relies on both private and corporate donations to make this work possible.
Learn more about our work and donate at www.iraqichildren.org, or contact ICF Executive Director Elizabeth (Liz) McRae at liz@iraqichildren.org
(Source: ICF)