“Thanks to this scholarship, I can help build the future of Iraq”

When Basma Adwar met with the Pope last June, she was able to thank him for the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) scholarship that bears his name and allowed her to go to university in Iraq.

In 2003, Basma Adwar’s family moved from Baghdad to Zakho, in Iraqi Kurdistan, after the fall of Saddam Hussein. For Christians, this marked the beginning of a period of persecution, which peaked in 2014, when hundreds of thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes on the Nineveh Plains and find refuge in Kurdistan.

Basma’s sister went to a public university and became a dentist, but 25-year-old Basma wanted to study international relations at the prestigious Catholic University in Erbil (CUE). Fortunately, this was made possible by an ACN-funded scholarship.

The Pope Francis Scholarships, supported by ACN donors, were scheduled to begin in September 2021, but they were postponed for a few months as a result of the pandemic. In the first year, 128 students received scholarships, some of which included accommodations. Most of these students are Christian, but there are Yezidis and Muslims, too.

“I am currently in the third stage of my major,” Basma told ACN. “Without the scholarship, I would not have been able to attend the CUE.”

Basma, who is a member of the Chaldean Catholic Church, believes that the CUE is helping the integration and peaceful coexistence of students in Iraq, and explains that she has many Yezidi and Muslim colleagues and friends.

And as many young Christians are leaving the country in search of a better future, Basma also thinks that initiatives like a scholarship program make it possible for them to stay. “Because I have a scholarship to study, I can stay in Iraq, which I want to do. I want my future to be in Iraq, and I want to help build my country’s future, too,” she said.

More scholarships, more opportunities

Last June, Basma was able to directly express her gratitude to Pope Francis, during a meeting of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO). “I was invited to participate in the ROACO conference in June, representing Iraq, and I had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis. I thanked him for all the help he gave to Iraq, and for the scholarships, because the scholarship is in his name.”

The meeting lasted only a few minutes, and Basma says that the Pope listened attentively and smiled when she mentioned the scholarships. “It was a great moment for me and for all the Christians in Iraq. I had not had the opportunity to see him before, because when he visited Iraq in 2021, we were told that only one member of our family could go and see him, so my father went.”

Basma is grateful to ACN for funding her education, but she says that there are many more students who need this help. And she said as much when she met Marco Mencaglia, the project director for ACN: “I thanked [Mencaglia] for the grants they provided, and I asked him for more scholarships, because there are many students who need them, especially in Iraq.”

ACN has increased its support to this project, which means that over the next three years, 70 new students will benefit from the Pope Francis Scholarships and have access to the opportunities of a first-rate education.

—Filipe d’Avillez