In the last two years, all French dioceses have been, and will keep being, involved in a project to support and help refugees students in Kirkuk. The initiative is locally coordinated by mgr. Youssef Thomas Mirkis, Archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymania, who every day gives these students accommodation, access to healthcare, Internet connection and food. The number of students has constantly increased, so now 700 of them are being looked after by Bishop Mirkis. The progress of the Islamic State in Iraq caused over 150 thousand people to leave the country. Refugees include many students. Mgr. Youssif Thomas Mirkis’s goal is for young people to stay in Iraq to study, because “the future of Iraq – he says – depends on them”. Because of this, the French Church decided to support Iraqi students by calling French Catholic communities to pray and raise funds. To keep raising funds, today the French Bishops Conference, in partnership with Oeuvre d’Orient (project partner), is opening an online fund-raising page on a crowd-funding platform. This first stage of the crowd-funding campaign is expected to raise 48,000 euros within one month.