ATLANTA (ABP) -- Forty Iraqi children will receive funding this year from Christian organizations trying to ensure they receive an education.

Millions of Iraqis have fled to Jordan and Syria to escape ongoing violence in Iraq. Most arrive with only what they could carry, and few can find jobs to afford basic living expenses, much less school tuition. Until this year, Iraqi refugee children were not even allowed to attend Jordanian public schools.

“Whenever I visit an Iraqi family, I ask their children about the last time they were in school,” said Rod Green, who works at the Ashrafiya Nazarene School in Amman, Jordan. “The usual answer is two or three years.”

The Nazarene school, located in a neighborhood where many Iraqi refugees live, accepted 70 students this year. It received more than $18,000 from outside supporters in order to pay for tuition and books.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gave more than $8,000 to the school, which is affiliated with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. The ministry began its work with Iraqi families in 2003 by providing food, heaters, blankets and medical assistance.

Many Iraqi children would be sitting idly at home without the help, Green said.

Ayman, 11, and Shehad, 15, are two of the school's Iraqi students. After bombing started over their Baghdad home and their kidnapped father was released, the frightened boys fled to Jordan in 2003. The family found renewed hope at the Nazarene church and an education for Ayman and Shehad through the school.

David Harding, CBF's international coordinator for disaster response, used to work in Jordan and attended a Nazarene church there -- that's how he alerted CBF to the Nazarene ministry. Harding said he has seen firsthand the trauma caused by war.

“Kids and their families uprooted from their homes because of war is a disaster,” he said. “We ought to follow them wherever they go to lend a hand in re-establishing a new life outside of harm's way.”

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