July 2014 A Christian family from Mosul in their new home in the town of Al-Hamdania. The 15 family members fled persecution in Mosul when it was captured by Islamic State (ISIS) forces. They would be displaced again, along with thousands of other families, to the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan when fighting around the town erupted. 

More than 500 Christian families lived in cramped, unfinished homes in Al-Hamdania. The Islamic State fighters systematically expelled the Christian population from the town. With only a few days to either convert to Islam, pay a tax or leave, many Christians chose to cross the ISIS checkpoints out of the town. While leaving, many were robbed at gunpoint.