Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Assyrian and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

I’ve always had a need to have a connection with my culture, my background, the people that are still back in our homeland, mostly in Iraq. And so when Assyrian Aid was established in 1991 and I learned about it, I became very interested, because it was a way for me to contribute to have that connection that I needed.

Greetings, elegant viewers, and welcome to Good Works. Today’s show features the Assyrian Aid Society of America and its sister chapter in Iraq, which work to improve and enhance the lives of the kindhearted Assyrian people. The organization also strives to preserve and promote the ancient Assyrian culture and heritage.

The Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq, most of the Assyrians, are Christians.

Mesopotamia, it means “a land between two rivers.” And we are descendants of those people. Our capital, back 3000 years ago, was the capital of Nineveh. Since 600 BC, we haven’t had an area that we call our own country. But it was in the area of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, mostly in Iraq. So whenever there are archaeological digs in Iraq, it’s always of Assyrian history there.

Assyrians originate from an area widely considered to be the cradle of civilization and of one of the four riverine civilizations in which writing was believed to be invented. Dating back to over 3,000 years ago, the oldest lens artifact, known as the Nimrud lens, was invented in ancient Assyria. This lineage of scientific aptitude and diligence continues on in modern Assyrians.

Assyrians are very hard working people, and I’d say 99% of the men that you meet are going to tell you they are engineers because that was the profession, they’re very disciplined and they love math. The women do everything. When we went to Iraq this last trip, I wasn’t surprised to see that all the schools, I’d say 90% of the schools, the principal were women. Women can multi-task really easily, and Assyrian women, I think, take that to an extreme and are very strong, very nurturing people.

First established in San Francisco, California, USA in November 1991, Assyrian Aid Society of America works in collaboration with the Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq in direct response to the needs of Assyrians throughout Iraq as well as worldwide.

We, in the United States, formed the Assyrian Aid Society of America. At the same time, we encouraged to have Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq as our sister organization. And then we wanted to go international, and we formed and organized Assyrian Aid Society of Australia, Assyrian Aid Society of Canada, Assyrian Aid Society of Europe.

We are in the headquarters in Berkeley, and we have a number of chapters in the United States, Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose, in Nevada as well, in the Central Valley, Modesto-Turlock area, and in Chicago and in Michigan.

The cause that we have is to supply humanitarian need for the needy Assyrians in northern Iraq. That encompasses primarily schools, needy people, medical centers, pharmacies, agriculture, irrigation, building roads, building homes for the displaced people. We have raised over six and a half million dollars to supply the need for the needy Assyrians for the humanitarian necessities in Iraq.

With this six and a half million dollars, we have done the job of well over thirty million dollars in aid because our money goes a long way because most of our workers are volunteers. All our executives, board members are volunteers. We don’t get any compensation and that’s why we can bring the help to the needy people on a 92 cents in a dollar. So we have only 8 cents expenses.

One of the most important projects of the Assyrian Aid Society is to better the education for children in northern Iraq.

Our priority number one is to supply the need for our young children so they can survive, to be safe, to be socially active and to be sporty active, to be active with the arts and all that. And plus to continue their education and hopefully reach a higher level of education, like university.

One of the Assyrian Aid Society’s landmark achievements in education is the translation of all current textbooks for all grades into Assyrian for students.

We have schools in northern Iraq. We realized that there is a need for our children to keep our language going and to learn our language and to study most of the subjects, at this point it’s all the subjects in Assyrian.

So we took on the task to translate the books into all the science, the math books, history books, everything into Assyrian, and so now the schools that we fund, which are 54 schools and close to 5,000 students in northern Iraq, study the curriculum in our language.

To supplement the improvement in school curriculum, the Assyrian Aid Society also facilitates accommodations and provides transportation for students living in remote areas to offer them an opportunity to receive their education.

One other project that we do fund is a dormitory for university students, it’s at our headquarters in Duhok. And it’s free of charge. It’s a way for parents who live in, villages far away to feel comfortable that their students are staying in a safe, secure place.

We have vans that they go and pick up those children and bring them to cities like Erbil, Dohuk or wherever the schools they are attending. And then they continue with their education. And in dormitories, we supply them with the breakfast, lunch and dinner, uniforms, computers, books and all the supplies that the student needs, and support them so they can continue their education because they are the future of our nation.

The Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq also works with local charitable organizations to assist the practical and social needs of youth and women.

We have established 2 childcare centers for the mothers that they want to work and they don’t have any place to have their children taken care of.

And they always have a need for a place to meet, a cultural center to either meet or have social events and a place for our young people to be after school, and there’s classes taught there or some sort of sewing classes or you know that kind of thing. We call it cultural center to house all those needs.

In terms of healthcare, Assyrian Aid Society has established and maintains pharmacies and clinics in areas such as Sarsing, Alqush, Tellisquf, Batnaye, and Karemles, providing accessible and affordable medical services to those in need.

There are very remote villages that our people live in, hardly any paved roads and the medical need is really dire, and so we’ve funded pharmacies to be built in these areas, so that when there are small medical needs, they are able to access one. And in those pharmacies, there are the people who work in them, are able to give vaccinations, do small things like that would be really helpful, and for them not to have to travel long distances.

We have had situations where children, especially have had medical needs that they aren’t able to tend to in locally there, and we’ve brought them either here or to Jordan or to Syria to have them have surgery or anything that they would need to do.

We supplied all of our neighbors, the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Shabak, all the minorities, that if they needed help, we offered them if they can have some of our medication, and use them for a better purpose that we do.

There are numerous stories of how the assistance from the Assyrian Aid Society has saved and changed lives for the better. It is such heart touching moments that motivate the passionate and dedicated volunteers in their noble work.

We had many occasions whereby, for example, we brought a 2 year old child, he had a hole in his heart, 2 years ago, and he was given only 2, 3 years to live. We brought him over here, we had open heart surgery for him, he recovered and now he’s about 5 years old, 4 years old, and he’s doing very well.

In the bombing, a family had 3 sons, they had lost their legs, their arms, their limbs, we brought them over here, and we had to put artificial arms and legs for them. But when they went, they walked with their own feet, they used their own arms, prosthetics arms and legs. That’s our reward, that is our self-satisfaction. We see the fruit of our labor, where we really help our people, and they get the help they need in order to survive.

For more information about the Assyrian Aid Society, please visit: assyrianaid.org

Join us again next Sunday for more about the accomplished Assyrian culture and the laudable works of the Assyrian Aid Society here on Good People, Good Works. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for The World Around Us after Noteworthy News. Let us rejoice in Heaven’s love and grace.

Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Assyrian and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Assyrian people are very open. If you come to their village, they insisted that you come to their home and stay there, stay with them and eat, constantly drink tea, and they’ll just open their home to you as if they’ve known you forever. It’s all Assyrians all over, it’s not just in the home country.

Greetings, elegant viewers, to Good People, Good Works. Today we continue with part 2 of our two-part series featuring the Assyrian Aid Society of America and its sister chapter in Iraq, which work to improve and enhance the lives of the kindhearted Assyrian people. The organization also strives to preserve and promote the ancient Assyrian culture and heritage.

Since its establishment in 1991, the Assyrian Aid Society has been at the forefront of Assyrian refugee relief work, providing services to those displaced from their homeland.

Within Iraq. We try to help as much as much as we can. We try to help when we have other Assyrians in the neighborhood countries like Syria and Jordan, Armenia as well. There were a lot of people that had to move from there areas that they normally lived in, to the north and had no access to services. So it was a village rebuilding to provide them shelter.

And when people of need come to our pharmacies or come to dorms to ask to stay there, we never ask them where you’re from, what village you’re from, what church you’re from, or any of those things. All we know is that we help all our Assyrians, our Assyrian brothers and sisters, and that’s really important to us.

All the refugees need to be attended to. And they should be helped so they can live a normal life like you and I, at the place of their choosing, whether it be United States, whether it be Australia, whether be Canada, whether be any country in Europe. The whole idea is to live peacefully, among other peoples in a place.

Assyrian Aid Society funds reconstruction programs, education programs from pre-school through college, as well as medical projects that have included shipments of medicines and supplies, free medical clinics, and facilitating life-saving surgeries.

A lot of times when we are doing work in a certain village, you’ll find people say, “I’m from there,” or “I still have relatives there.” And so they have this passion to give more for that particular project.

When I was there, immediately I felt like I had been there all along, and I knew these people all my life. But I had just met them, right there. And so when we’d go to all these villages it was the same thing, we were just so welcomed with open arms. They’re all very happy with their lives. They just, it’s just rough, they don’t have the means to live comfortably. And so we hope that we make some dent in their life to make it better for them.

But as we were leaving one day, one of these old women who was just hugging me the whole time said “You’ll just go and forget us, just like everybody else does when they come here.” It was really hard for me to leave. I actually have come back and I’ve tried working really hard to not forget those words and to do more.

I hope that every Assyrian would be able to go back at least one time in their lifetime, to go see that area in the north and to be around our people, and I think that would be a great experience for them, just like it was for me.

Assyrian Aid Society not only provides humanitarian assistance, it also actively works to preserve the ancient Assyrian culture and its rich heritage.

The base of our language is Aramaic. It’s a Semitic language and it’s very similar to the Hebrew language, it’s read right to left. Our organization, Assyrian Aid Society helps all Assyrians. Sometimes Assyrians are also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs.

As you know, every nation’s voice and every nation’s sign is indicated by their artists - their musicians, their poets, the writers, the singers and the artists because they are the ones that they display the history and the custom of that nation by introducing the nation through their art.

It’s music that has been passed down through generations. Some of it actually has been just through word of mouth and hearing it, let’s say, at family gatherings and things like that. And so some of these composers had then tried to put that in more of a formal setting, where it’s written so that it could be preserved.

One of our chapters in the central valley, in the Medassa Turlock area, the president of that chapter there is very much into the arts and our musical heritage. And so in the past 4 years, he’s been very involved in promoting and bringing out the past composers and musicians, so it’s been really wonderful.

Through various events and fundraisers, the Assyrian Aid Society is able to introduce various aspects of the Assyrian culture to the public as well as reinforce the bond within the Assyrian community.

There’s a great center there called the Gallo Center and they have 2 auditoriums that are just beautiful and so we have been doing our fundraisers, our events in the Gallo Center, and it’s been really successful. So in those events we represent not only the music but also our art. There’s a lot of artists that depict our heritage as well as our traditional clothing. A lot of times we are either wearing it in the events or represented somehow.

This scarf was actually designed and made by our LA chapter organization, and you’ll see the Assyrian Aid Society on the side there. But this is Assyrian writing, and it’s by well-known poet named Ninos Aho, and you read it this way. And it comes in different colors. And so they use this as part of their fundraiser that they had, it was called “Art and Artists,” it was a night of poetry, painting, and this was one of the poems that was read that night.

Part of its efforts toward cultural preservation is through the production of a documentary, which tells the fascinating history of the advanced Assyrian people and their important contributions and inventions which are still applied in modern day society.

“The Assyrian Legacy” narrated by George Kennedy who is an Academy award winner, actor in Hollywood, plus Mr. Henri Charr who is a professional director, filmmaker for the last 30 years. So we got together in order to display the identity of the Assyrians and all the humanitarian, and art, and scientific displays and the inventions that they had to show that who Assyrian were and what kind of contribution they make to our civilization and mankind.

For example, the wheel, the building of the city, irrigation, navigation, merchandising, merchants, trade, the music, jewelry, that they start working with precious metals like gold and silver. And so they make quite a bit of contribution to our civilization.

Numeric, the clock, the 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week. Astronomy and many scientific discoveries that they were made to our civilization and to mankind that we are even using it today.

What we are trying to do is save, really, a civilization from becoming extinct. And this is a civilization that is really the history of all mankind, it’s called the cradle of civilization. It’s where most of our modern day mathematics and science comes from. So I think it is really important to get the word out to the international community that you’re not just saving our history. It’s really the whole world history.

The Assyrian people living in Iraq as well as abroad are harmonious people who share the same high-minded aspirations and sincere wishes as all of humankind.

We hope to live in peace among our neighbors and to be able to practice our own way of life, to practice our religion, our traditions, our culture and we’re hoping that the outside, the international community will be able to help us to do that. And really, that’s all we ask for. There’s nothing else we’d like more. A democratic, free Iraq for all, not just for us but for all.

I am grateful to you, for your interview, and to your television station to give us this opportunity of explaining who the Assyrian Society are and what the Assyrian people are.

To my brothers and sisters, I bid you goodbye with a happy heart. Thank you.

We thank Ms. Mona Malik and Mr. Pierre Toulakany for sharing your deep knowledge about the gentle Assyrian people. May the noble work of the Assyrian Aid Society continue in evermore success.

For more information about the Assyrian Aid Society, please visit: assyrianaid.org

Considerate viewers, we enjoyed having your presence today for Good People, Good Works. Coming up next is The World Around Us after Noteworthy News. May your life be filled with goodness, nobility and peace.