Outside of Erbil, I met with some recently freed Yazidi girls in the home they shared with their mother.

They had been victims of sex slavery and torture at the hands of their ISIS captors and their ISIS brides. After being rescued by Kurdish forces, the girls were sent to the nearby United Nations Sharya Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp.

The male relatives of these young women are either missing or dead and the UN camp is a gravely unsafe place for unaccompanied women to be, and it’s even worse for Yazidi girls. ISIS frequently hides in plain sight, masquerading as refugees to avoid detection and prosecution for their crimes.

Our partners at the Nazarene Fund identify young women like these girls - Christians and Yazidis alike - and extract them from the UN camps, finding them housing, helping them receive trauma counseling, medical care, education, and sometimes even security while they wait to have their immigration claims accepted by Australia.

To help the Nazarene Fund, please check out our Christmas fundraising at SaveTheChristians.com.