Twenty Assyrian youth volunteers are mending the wounds of Teleskof, a small Christian town just 19 miles northeast of the Mosul frontlines. The volunteers say they are determined to rebuild what was stolen from them by the Islamic State and ensure that Christianity has a place in Iraq.

On January 5th young Assyrian men and women between the ages of 18 to 30 from the ChaldoAssyrian Students & Youth Union, also known as Khoyada, took to the abandoned streets of Teleskof. It was day one for clean-up of the destruction left behind by the Islamic State as part of the launch of Operation Return To Nineveh, Iraqi Christian Relief Council’s campaign with partner Assyrian Aid Society to rebuild destroyed towns and churches in the Nineveh Plain.

For the youth who volunteered, Operation Return To Nineveh is not just about repairing the damage that hate brings but showing the world that Assyrians wish for a real future in northern Iraq and with genuine support from the international community.

Athra, a 27-year-old from Alqosh, says he volunteered for the launch of Operation Return To Nineveh because of his deep duty to protect the Assyrian nation and what he sees as the need for religious freedom in Iraq. Athra says rebuilding as part of Operation Return To Nineveh has given him hope.

“The Nineveh Plain is the last part of what is left for our [Assyrian] nation, and that was taken from us two years ago [by ISIS]. When we retake our lands, it’s like applying electric shock to the heart of a person who is almost dead,” he says of a revival among Assyrians to stay in the homeland.

He says rebuilding means a future for Assyrians who have been at home in Iraq for 7,000 years with 2,000 of those years as Christians. Athra believes the international community needs to empower Assyrians to rebuild their communities if Christianity is to survive in Iraq. “If the international community wants to truly support Assyrians, they have to do it with the hands of our people,” says Athra.

Salah, a Teleskof native who was displaced by ISIS, says he was drawn to volunteering out of a duty for Assyria, the land of his parents and grandparents. The 30-year-old volunteer says that a majority Christian families in Iraq want to return home to now liberated towns and villages, however, without the support of the international community it will be difficult.

“I invite world officials to move resolutely in laying the foundations for peace, justice and the protection of life and dignity for all people. Just promise that our return to liberated areas of the Nineveh Plain will be protected so we can keep our ancestral homeland,” Salah says of the need for international protection and planning during the rebuilding post-genocide.

Robert, a 28-year-old Assyrian from Duhok, agreed. “Rebuilding is a way we can make our people stay in our homeland,” he says. The Christian population in Iraq has been decimated in the past decade dropping from 1.4 million in 2003 to just 275,000 today, according to the Knights of Columbus.

The clean-up efforts were the first to start in the town of Teleskof. Soldiers from the Nineveh Plain Protection Units escorted the youth volunteers.

Operation Return to Nineveh has been commenced. Chaldo-Assyrian Students Union begins renovation of Tesqopa under NPU supervision. pic.twitter.com/fKwgtgBIOo — NPU (@NinevehPU) January 6, 2017

Teleskof was chosen as the first sight of rebuilding for Operation Return To Nineveh. Iraqi Christian Relief Council’s campaign was launched in mid-November to rebuild liberated towns and churches that sustained heavy destruction under Islamic State rule including Baghdedeh, Bartella, Karemlesh, Baqufa, Batnaya and Teleskof. An estimated 18 Christian churches were burned, desecrated, and destroyed in the Nineveh Plain since August 2014. Nineveh Plain cities, towns, and villages that were deliberately destroyed by the Islamic State amount to a US government-recognized genocide.

Support Operation Return To Nineveh and donate today. Watch the launch of Operation Return To Ninveh in Teleskof.