In an area where Christians have been living in fear for practicing their faith, hundreds of children in northern Iraq are receiving some Christmas cheer through a program launched in El Cajon.

"We ask a kid here in the U.S. to give a toy to a kid in Iraq," said Dr. Noori Barka, founder of the Chaldean Community Council. "We see these kids who are in need there. They are celebrating with us through this program."

The Kids to Kids program began six years ago as an outgrowth of Hope for Iraqi Christians, which Barka helped launch in 2015.

Both programs began in light of the grim reality many Christians in Northern Iraq face. In August 2014, fighters from the Islamic State, formerly known as Isis, attacked villages in the area, resulting in an estimated 200,000 refugees, according to news reports at the time.

Barka is originally from the Christian village of Tel Skuf, which was among those attacked. His family left for Bagdad when he was 10, but he still felt a kinship with the people under siege, as did many others in El Cajon, where about 30,000 Iraqi immigrants are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Those who didn't leave the villages include elderly, sick or poor people who have no means to escape. Hope for Iraqi Christians has raised more than $3 million through its adopt-a-family program, which helps people pay rent, buy food and meet other expenses.

In the Kids to Kids initiative, empty gift boxes are distributed to San Diego churches to be filled by children, with their parents' help. According to the Hope for Iraqi Christian website, 850 gift boxes and 500 pairs of shoes were collected last year and shipped to Iraq aboard C-17 aircraft flown out of March Air Reserve Base in Riverside.

Jolyana Jirfees, executive director of the Chaldean Community Council, traveled to Northern Iraq in 2022 to visit some of the families in the adoption program.

"I saw the people, how they're struggling and the little kids who don't have backpacks to go to school with," she said. "Most of them carry their books in plastic bags to get to school. It's very sad."

Jirfees said many children don't go to school because their families cannot afford the transportation fee to get there, and many adults don't have shoes.

Barka said about 320 families have been adopted by local families who each give $100 a month. Jirfees said she has adopted five families who use the money for rent, food or medicine, depending on their needs.

"I talk to them all the time," she said about families she has adopted. "I help them get into school or get a license to do hair or nails or help them get into a program."

With one $300 donation, Jirfees said she helped change one man's life by funding his enrollment in a program so he could get a license and buy the equipment he needed to run his own business.

Barka said he immediately felt a need to help Iraqi families after seeing the news of the attacks in 2014.

"Just like that, we woke up in the morning, we saw the news, and it was like a shock for us," he said. "Especially for me. I immediately went to our church, Saint Peter. I spoke to the bishop. I said, 'Look, this is what's happening.' I suggested that we start a fundraising program immediately."

With help from other churches in East County, Barka said about $650,000 was raised in one event. He helped create Hope for Iraqi Christians as a nonprofit in 2015 so funding would not rely on churches, and the organization also continues to work with Knights of Columbus.

Donors in the program are given a folder with photos and information about the people they are helping and told, "This is your family." Barka said they also are given the family's phone number and encouraged to call them.

Direct contact with the families also is part of the program's transparency because it assure donors that their money is being delivered, he said.

While most people give $100 a month and adopt one family, some give much more and adopt multiple families. Just like week, Barka received a single $18,000 donation from a person who is adopting 15 families, he said.