Courage in theMidst of CrISIS
by Clem Boyd
GraduatedMay 3. Interning in northern Iraq byMemorial Day. In themiddle of
a hugeMiddle Eastern conflict by June 10. Josh Evans ’14 had a bolder summer
than he was expecting.
media research and presence, a key way to
connect with potential donors and keep
current donors informed about what the
organization is doing.
“I heard about internships with PLC
through a fellow student station manager
at Resound Radio,” Evans said. “When
PLC was on campus in February 2013, I
tweeted back and forth with their social
media guy, then walked to their booth and
talked to him for about an hour. It put their
internship on the radar.”
FromMay 25 to July 25, Evans organized
PLC’s donor base, analyzed and suggested
ways to improve its use of social media,
generated research for future marketing
efforts, and taught English to Syrians and
Kurds.
From Routine to Volatile
Then ISIS happened.
“I was sitting in a coffee shop in the
mountains of northern Iraq on June 10,
blogging about the mundane aspects of
working at PLC,” Evans related. “I was
writing how everything we do is a holy act,
and then I get this Facebook message from
my friend Dave back home, asking, ‘You’re
not in Mosul are you? Hoping you guys are
safe.’”
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) had invaded northern Iraq. Mosul
is just an hour-and-a-half drive to Erbil,
capital of the semi-independent province
of Kurdistan.
“My heart was in my stomach for a
couple of days,” Evans said. “People were
saying, ‘This is Iraq; it happens all the time.’
But it seemed like something else going on.”
Very early in the conflict, ISIS said it
had no interest in Kurdistan. By mid-July,
Evans, who earned a bachelor’s degree
fromCedarville in broadcasting and digital
media this past spring, began an internship
several weeks after graduation with the
Preemptive Love Coalition (PLC). PLC tells
the story of Iraqi’s children with congenital
heart defects, a result of malnutrition and
the continuing after-effects of chemical and
other weapons. According to PLC, Iraqi
babies evidence 10 times the rate of heart
defects compared to the world average.
PLC also raises funds for lifesaving
surgery and recruits surgeons for short-
term Remedy Missions that double as
training for Iraqi surgeons and medical
staff.
Evans went to Kurdistan in northern
Iraq with the goal of improving PLC’s social
14
|
Cedarville Magazine
