All the money raised from the Prisoners of Hope story, totaling more than $1.5M, is given away to fund projects serving vulnerable people in Afghanistan. A small seed amount is used to incorporate Global Hope and launch its vision to advance freedom and hope among peoples impacted by conflict.

Heather leads a team of four women that moves to Kurdistan one week before Christmas. With a vision to serve the Kurdish people in a post-Saddam Iraq, the team studies Kurdish language and culture.

Global Hope is invited to work in an underserved area of Kurdistan. The provincial governor offers Global Hope land and the support of the Kurdish government to establish a multipurpose community center to meet the most crucial needs of the Kurdish people emerging from genocide and war. Global Hope signs a land and construction contract with the KRG to build the Freedom Center. The first $500,000 is raised to get started on the project.

Global Hope is officially registered in Iraq as an international NGO. It is one of the first 100 organizations registered with the Kurdish Regional Government through the Ministry of Planning. Global Hope hires an Iraqi contracting company to build the Freedom Center and breaks ground.

Global Hope launches Impact Iraq, a program to mobilize volunteers across various sectors to serve the humanitarian and development needs across Kurdistan. As the Kurds aim to become contributing members of the global community, Global Hope facilitates more than 200 volunteers - including doctors, teachers, lawyers, engineers, ministers, and business professionals - to train the leaders of the next generation. Global Hope registers the first and only government-accredited English language school in the area.

Global Hope brings life-saving medical care to Iraqi Kurdistan’s most vulnerable children. Babou travels to America to meet with one of only fifteen doctors globally who can perform advanced limb-lengthening surgery to save his leg. With only weeks to live, Alan receives heart surgery that saves his life. In partnership with American obstetricians, Global Hope addresses a critical gap in women’s healthcare by coordinating a program to read mammograms.

Global Hope expands its business partnerships and hosts a Chick-fil-ATM discovery team to visit the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the Freedom Center. As a part of its long-term strategy for sustainable change, Global Hope explores ways to increase opportunities for language learning, education, and economic development among young people, especially women and girls.

Navigating the pitfalls of corruption, supply chain challenges, and contract disputes, Global Hope takes over as the general contractor for the Freedom Center and mobilizes dozens of skilled construction volunteers and project managers to coordinate its completion. Teams from across America travel for weeks or months at a time, at their own expense, in service of the Kurdish people.

ISIS seizes territory across Syria and Iraq and changes its name to the Islamic State. It declares the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria and takes over Mosul from the Iraqi Army. Over 1,000,000 people from Iraq and Syria are displaced, flooding into the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in search of safe haven. Global Hope adjusts its original purpose for the Freedom Center and uses it as a distribution center for its emergency response and humanitarian work.

Global Hope launches and trademarks the Hope4IraqSM campaign as its response to the growing ISIS crisis and expands its frontline distributions supporting Kurdish soldiers and their families defending the freedom of the region and the world.

Global Hope establishes a direct pathway to rescue Yezidi women and children from ISIS captivity. Twenty-one women and children are brought to safety with their families before the pathway closes. Heather sponsors Hawal, a deaf Kurdish boy, to come to America for surgery for his hearing impairment. When no viable treatment is available, Heather adopts Hawal as her son and helps him build a new life in America.

Global Hope continues live-saving aid distributions in camps across the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, supporting tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, and also establishes a safe house prototype for victims of gender-based violence. The referendum vote for Kurdish independence takes place and gains more than 92% support in favor of independence. This sets off a firestorm of political conflict with the federal government of Iraq that leads to further military conflict. The KRG loses 20% of its territory and its main source of revenue: the oil fields of Kirkuk.

Global Hope suffers a tremendous heartbreak when it discovers regional actors and power brokers have orchestrated an entrapment plot threatening the work and the lives of its staff. Committed to securing justice and preserving the work for the most marginalized, Global Hope lobbies for support at the highest levels of the US government. Secretary Mike Pompeo ultimately activates a delegation of senior government officials to intervene, including the US Ambassador to Iraq and the Assistant Secretary of State. Ironically, this confrontation garners increased support from the KRG and establishes Global Hope as a strong partner in the region.

The US withdrawal from northeast Syria sparks another wave of displacement in the protracted Syrian refugee crisis, and once again communicates a significant betrayal to the Kurds. More than 260,000 people now live as refugees inside the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Global Hope brings emergency aid to Syria and to thousands of families in camps. Global Hope is asked by Kurdish officials to assist in the development of a deradicalization program for the families and children of ISIS fighters, an essential task in destroying extremist ideologies.

Despite the challenges of a global pandemic and COVID shutdowns, Global Hope completes the Freedom Center with its original vision as a multi-purpose community center serving the development needs of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and beyond.

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and Heather’s captivity in Afghanistan, Global Hope inaugurates the Freedom Center together with 600 Iraqi government officials, community leaders, and friends. More than 50 American friends and supporters also travel for the occasion. The unprecedented celebration testifies that the dream is only impossible until it is done. After more than a decade of faith and perseverance, the long-awaited vision is realized.

Escalating Iranian interference throughout Iraq threatens the community around Global Hope’s headquarters in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. In multiple attacks, Iran launches dozens of ballistic missiles and suicide drones targeting Iranian opposition groups in the area. These attacks displace more than 700 local families and kill and injure dozens more, including women and children. Global Hope immediately responds with aid and support for the victims of the attacks.

After the completion of the Freedom Center, Global Hope launches its renewed vision for the next twenty years. Focusing on maximizing impact, scaling for growth, and expanding to new regions, Global Hope mobilizes highcapacity leadership and resources to carry the mission into the future.