A SURVIVOR OF ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA IN LINCOLN, NE
Sherin Jardo is a young woman originally from the Shingal region of northern Iraq. She and thousands of others were kidnapped during the 2014 genocidal attack on the Yazidi people by the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS or “Da’esh”). At the time, Sherin Jardo lived on a farm with her extended family, all of whom were abducted when they were trying to escape Islamic State militants.
Below is a photo of Sherin Jardo shortly after she escaped captivity and torture under ISIS control. She lived briefly in a camp for displaced Yazidi genocide survivors in Iraqi Kurdistan.
She then resettled in Lincoln, NE in 2017 as a political asylee seeking refuge due to persecution and credible fears for her safety because she dared to speak out against her ISIS captors and the torture and abuse she endured in captivity. She is currently the sole Yazidi enslavement survivor in Lincoln, NE, which is home to the largest Yazidi refugee population in the United States.
Today she lives in Lincoln, NE and hopes to locate missing members of her family. She works at a Smithfield meat processing facility and studies English, while waiting for her green card.
She would like to reunite with her family. Several siblings live in a camp in Kurdistan. She has been unable to visit them for several years because of delays in her immigration status processing.
Her three brothers (Dakhil, Ali, and Hadi Jardo Ibrahim, below) are still missing.
You can help Sherin Jardo in two ways:
ONE
You can call your two Nebraska Senators (below) and ask them to speed up the processing of her green card. Sherin Jardo is an ISIS survivor who entered the US as a political asylum seeker, and she deserves to live in safety and freedom from fear. We welcome her to the United States and demand immediate processing of her green card:
Senator Ben Sasse
Lincoln office: (402) 476-1400
Washington, DC office: (202) 224-4224
Senator Deb Fischer
Lincoln office: (402) 441-4600
Washington, DC office: (202) 224-6551
TWO
You can ask your church group or volunteer organization to organize a volunteer project to help Sherin (donating for example to her education fund or to help her with transportation). Please contact her translators, Mr. Khairi Hesso and Mrs. Khalida Hesso, who are fluent in English and can suggest other ways to help:
Mr. Khairi Hesso:
(402) 805-9317
Mrs. Khalida Hesso:
(402) 601-2669
Sherin Jardo (center) and Mr. Khairi Hesso (second from left) at a 2020 Nebraska event.
Taehee Kim 