Our Story

Hope for Communities was started by Sharo and Alexis. Sharo is Kurdish and was born in the Northern region of Iraq. As a child he left as a refugee with his family. Sharo is a nurse and Alexis who is from the UK is a doctor. Sharo and Alexis saw the refugee crisis that was growing around the world. They saw families so desperate to escape their current situations that they would risk everything including their lives to escape and try and find a better future. It was in response to this that they decided to move as a family back to the Kurdish region of Iraq and begin to work with refugees and internally displaced people. Their vision was to see hope restored to communities where hope has been lost through war or poverty and so the charity ‘Hope for communities’ was started.

The first community Hope for Communities have started to work in is one where the majority of people have been displaced for many years. When walking through around the community there is a sense that the longer this community has been struggling the more hopeless the people feel that things will improve. But Hope for Communities didn’t shy away from the challenge! We began by going into the community and asking the questions, what can we offer at a community centre that will benefit this community? The most popular request was for us to provide English Language Classes, and so our first project began. You can read more about these English Language Classes in our projects section.

As Sharo and Alexis both have medical backgrounds they would love to see healthcare projects started in the community. Hope for Communities would love to see those who are the most vulnerable and poor in a society receiving the highest standards of healthcare. Unlike many charities that are doing amazing work with refugees and IDPs providing much needed immediate relief, Hope for Communities wants to invest in communities for the long term. We want to bring lasting change that will really restore hope. This is why a simple thing like teaching English can make such a big difference by potentially opening up future job opportunities for people.

Hope for Communities isn’t a big charity, it doesn’t have a large team of people to assist with promoting our work and gaining support. But what we do have is a big heart and determination to see lives changed. The more time we spend with this community the more passionate and committed we become to seek out the best we possibly can for them in terms of education, training and health care and all the necessary support designed to enable individuals to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient. If this is something you would like to support or become involved in please follow the links or get in touch with us.and