From West Seattle to Kurdistan: John Murphy’s work with Yezidi refugees fleeing ISIL

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(John Murphy with Yezidi children; photo used with permission)
A West Seattle man is starting the New Year thousands of miles from home, working to help refugees who fled northern Iraq for Kurdistan. John Murphy is a Highland Park resident who, among other things, founded and leads The Cabiri. Right now, he is working to help Yezidi refugees, members of an ethnic minority forced from their homes by ISIL, which has targeted them with genocidal violence (here are reports from U.S. media and the BBC).

While nonprofit non-government organizations (NGOs) are helping some of the Yezidi refugees, others have taken shelter with relatives and sympathizers in towns around the region, and they are who Murphy is helping. We learned of his work via West Seattleite Lola Peters, who forwarded a message from Murphy that explains, “I’ve known Yezidi for two decades and have an ability to work within their culture. … The NGOs, although doing their best, they have lost people in the cracks. I am working with a private Yezidi collective to find needs, fulfill them, and mitigate hardships in the areas that have gotten (missed).”

Murphy has set up an emergency fund for the Yezidi refugees via this GoFundMe page, where you can read a short summary of his project. He also writes about it in-depth today at SeattleStar.net, noting, “Regardless of the largest refugee exodus since the Armenian genocide, few know exactly what is happening,” and concluding, “We in the West made this mess; let’s clean it up.” (While researching this, we happened onto a mention that U.S. military operations related to ISIL have cost $1 billion so far.)

datamuse January 6, 2015 (2:04 pm)

Speaking as a longtime fan and friend of the Cabiri, it’s pretty amazing that John is doing this. He’s a good guy and this is a worthwhile project. Nice to see his efforts featured here!

jennie January 6, 2015 (4:47 pm)

Thank you for publishing this!

J242 January 6, 2015 (6:00 pm)

There goes John, being awesome as always and trying to make the world a better place. :)

WSobserver January 6, 2015 (6:33 pm)

For the uninitiated, can someone explain how GO Fund Me works?

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I went to his link and clicked on donate, but I don’t know what kind of payments are accepted as I didn’t go so far as to fill out my name and email, which are required to continue on to the next page.

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I never give out any kind of personal information over the internet. No name, no nothing. I eschew any and all use of plastic cards either in person or electronically since absolutely everything anywhere is being hacked these days. I also wouldn’t touch Paypal with a 10 foot barge pole.

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Is it possible to donate via GO Fund Me by some method not involving plastic cards or Paypal?

LolaP January 7, 2015 (1:55 pm)

Thanks WSB! I hope our community will get behind the work John is doing. These folks are in grave danger with a heavy winter descending and nowhere to go. John has given us the chance to intervene beyond where our government can.

WSobserver… would mailing a check work for you?

J242 January 7, 2015 (3:49 pm)

To WSobserver: You can buy a “PayPal Card” at a lot of different retailers (Rite-Aids for sure, probably Target & a variety of grocery stores too) with cash and then use that as payment online with Go Fund Me or other services. You can also pay cash for a number of other “1 time use” cash cards from Visa that can be used.

I hope that helps!

LPeters January 7, 2015 (10:15 pm)

WSobserver: Check can be made out and mailed to Charly McCreary – The Yezidi Project, PO Box 12514, Seattle 98111. Charly is the Managing Director of The Cabiri and John’s partner in this project.

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