By Caritas
June 9, 2026
Susan Dabbous, Caritas Internationalis Editorial and Media Officer
Despite the difficult context, Caritas Iraq serves more than 4,000 cases with a team of 150 staff across eleven active projects in seven of Iraq’s eighteen governorates.
Nabil Nissan, Executive Director of Caritas Iraq, speaks about the newly appointed Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Miroslaw Wachowski, landmark visit on 11 May to Caritas projects in Baghdad.
Director Nabil, the new Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Wachowski, visited Caritas Iraq recently. How was he received by the staff?
After so many wars, we are in deep need of spiritual and moral support. When I learned that the new nuncio had been appointed here in Iraq, I called him immediately, visited him, and invited him to come to Caritas Iraq. He promised he would come — and then one day he rang me and said: “Nabil, I will come tomorrow.” The staff was very happy. We organised a small celebration, because his visit was very important. We felt that the Church is with us, that we are not alone in these hard conditions. He visited our rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities in Baghdad, where he met beneficiaries and staff directly. That encounter moved everyone present.
Iraq sits at the centre of a region once again shadowed by war. Iran, Gaza, Lebanon. How does that geopolitical pressure reach the people you serve?
Caritas Iraq’s work is purely humanitarian, and we have earned a strong reputation and good relationships with state institutions across communities. The latest regional incidents have had a limited effect on our operations, partly because we have more than one plan, more than one methodology. We have gained enough experience to navigate these difficult circumstances. Our mission is humanitarian and we are known for that direction within the Iraqi community.
Caritas Iraq serves all categories of the Iraqi society regardless of their religion, nationality and sect, which contributed to increasing its acceptability by all different parties.
Caritas currently runs eleven projects across seven of Iraq’s eighteen governorates, with 150 staff serving more than 4,000 cases. What are the most pressing needs you are responding to?
Those numbers tell only part of the story. After careful assessments, we identified four priority fields: education, health and mental health, livelihoods, and social cohesion. In education, we face three connected crises: a low level of teacher preparedness, the difficulty of bringing parents into the educational process, and keeping children motivated to attend school at all — and safe when they do, particularly from abuse. In rural areas the situation is especially acute. Communities there often have no services at all. We go to them directly, opening sessions with teachers and parents together. In areas surrounding Baghdad, with support from Caritas Italy, programmes are slowly changing what is possible.
We also operate a rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities in Baghdad; a need that has tragically increased after decades of war. We work with families, teaching mothers how to care for their children at home. The rate of disability in this country is very high. It is a wound the wars left behind.
We focus on offering love to all and dealing with people based on faith.
The local authorities strongly value Caritas social cohesion work, bringing Christians, Muslims and Yazidis into shared spaces. How do you make that happen in practice?
It starts long before any activity. We meet with mayors, decision makers, priests and the sheikhs of mosques, encouraging them to engage with and champion the process. We identify communities living in isolation and begin, carefully, to encourage them to join others — to listen, to interact, to build relationships. We celebrate together. In that indirect way, we create spaces to teach important things: reconciliation, tolerance, coexistence. The local authorities are especially impressed by how strongly non-Christian communities had embraced our programmes.
In recent years, the Christian community in Iraq has endured persecution, displacement, the brutality of Daesh. Where does that community stand today?
Caritas Iraq was the first organisation to enter some of the liberated areas after Daesh was pushed out. I visited areas where Daesh had been. And the greatest success of Caritas Iraq has been to break the barrier of fear. After everything we experienced, some of our young people began to feel isolated, frustrated, and without a future. We began to restore their trust — trust in themselves, trust in their role in their own country. Don’t imagine Christianity in Iraq as a number. Think of it as action, as a deed. We are a minority, but we are active. We serve all Iraqis, including those who once targeted us.
We are messengers of love before being employees, and our faith in our mission is always the path to success.
What would you say to international donors and partners today?
Our presence as Christians in Iraq is a trust placed in your hands. Through the support you provide for our projects, we will have a presence, a presence with meaning and purpose.
Susan Dabbous, Caritas Internationalis Editorial and Media Officer
Despite the difficult context, Caritas Iraq serves more than 4,000 cases with a team of 150 staff across eleven active projects in seven of Iraq’s eighteen governorates.
Nabil Nissan, Executive Director of Caritas Iraq, speaks about the newly appointed Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Miroslaw Wachowski, landmark visit on 11 May to Caritas projects in Baghdad.
Director Nabil, the new Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Wachowski, visited Caritas Iraq recently. How was he received by the staff?
After so many wars, we are in deep need of spiritual and moral support. When I learned that the new nuncio had been appointed here in Iraq, I called him immediately, visited him, and invited him to come to Caritas Iraq. He promised he would come — and then one day he rang me and said: “Nabil, I will come tomorrow.” The staff was very happy. We organised a small celebration, because his visit was very important. We felt that the Church is with us, that we are not alone in these hard conditions. He visited our rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities in Baghdad, where he met beneficiaries and staff directly. That encounter moved everyone present.
Iraq sits at the centre of a region once again shadowed by war. Iran, Gaza, Lebanon. How does that geopolitical pressure reach the people you serve?
Caritas Iraq’s work is purely humanitarian, and we have earned a strong reputation and good relationships with state institutions across communities. The latest regional incidents have had a limited effect on our operations, partly because we have more than one plan, more than one methodology. We have gained enough experience to navigate these difficult circumstances. Our mission is humanitarian and we are known for that direction within the Iraqi community.
Caritas Iraq serves all categories of the Iraqi society regardless of their religion, nationality and sect, which contributed to increasing its acceptability by all different parties.
Caritas currently runs eleven projects across seven of Iraq’s eighteen governorates, with 150 staff serving more than 4,000 cases. What are the most pressing needs you are responding to?
Those numbers tell only part of the story. After careful assessments, we identified four priority fields: education, health and mental health, livelihoods, and social cohesion. In education, we face three connected crises: a low level of teacher preparedness, the difficulty of bringing parents into the educational process, and keeping children motivated to attend school at all — and safe when they do, particularly from abuse. In rural areas the situation is especially acute. Communities there often have no services at all. We go to them directly, opening sessions with teachers and parents together. In areas surrounding Baghdad, with support from Caritas Italy, programmes are slowly changing what is possible.
We also operate a rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities in Baghdad; a need that has tragically increased after decades of war. We work with families, teaching mothers how to care for their children at home. The rate of disability in this country is very high. It is a wound the wars left behind.
We focus on offering love to all and dealing with people based on faith.
The local authorities strongly value Caritas social cohesion work, bringing Christians, Muslims and Yazidis into shared spaces. How do you make that happen in practice?
It starts long before any activity. We meet with mayors, decision makers, priests and the sheikhs of mosques, encouraging them to engage with and champion the process. We identify communities living in isolation and begin, carefully, to encourage them to join others — to listen, to interact, to build relationships. We celebrate together. In that indirect way, we create spaces to teach important things: reconciliation, tolerance, coexistence. The local authorities are especially impressed by how strongly non-Christian communities had embraced our programmes.
In recent years, the Christian community in Iraq has endured persecution, displacement, the brutality of Daesh. Where does that community stand today?
Caritas Iraq was the first organisation to enter some of the liberated areas after Daesh was pushed out. I visited areas where Daesh had been. And the greatest success of Caritas Iraq has been to break the barrier of fear. After everything we experienced, some of our young people began to feel isolated, frustrated, and without a future. We began to restore their trust — trust in themselves, trust in their role in their own country. Don’t imagine Christianity in Iraq as a number. Think of it as action, as a deed. We are a minority, but we are active. We serve all Iraqis, including those who once targeted us.
We are messengers of love before being employees, and our faith in our mission is always the path to success.
What would you say to international donors and partners today?
Our presence as Christians in Iraq is a trust placed in your hands. Through the support you provide for our projects, we will have a presence, a presence with meaning and purpose.
