Our Mission

Who We Are

Direct Aid Iraq (DAI) is a network that includes Iraqis and Americans supporting a future of peace for Iraq through providing aid, facilitating cooperation, engaging in advocacy, and providing education.

DAI is a program of the Middle East Cultural and Charitable Society, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization registered in the United States.

Our Goals

• To provide direct, timely, and effective support to Iraqis in need. At DAI’s inception in early 2007, we prioritized the provision of high-quality medical care on a case-by-case basis. Since that time, our work has expanded to include advocacy for resettlement, increasing the effectiveness of work by other organizations, and provision of material aid, equipment, and training as opportunities in which our networks and experience can be useful arise.
  

• To build bridges of trust, communication, and solidarity between Iraqis and Americans. Our efforts are coordinated on a day-to-day basis by a partnership of Iraqis and Americans. From that foundation, we reach out to forge people-to-people ties between these two peoples that have been forcibly divided by violence, misinformation, and oppression.

• To transform the U.S.-based discourse on Iraq by bringing the diverse voices of Iraqis to the central position they deserve. In doing this, we are supporting an engagement with the Iraqi people that is not solely predicated on a US military presence or the so-called “War on Terror”, instead advocating for a new relationship based on constructive peacebuilding, reparations, and dignity.

This effort is not intended as charity. Rather, it is an attempt at ongoing restitution to Iraqis for all that has been lost as a result of a US role in three devastating wars, 13 years of brutal sanctions, dictatorship, and the ongoing occupation. We see our work as being part of supporting the Iraqi people in building the future of peace they deserve.