Conditions in the Middle East & Report on SCR Support in Iraq
Feb 24, 2025 11:45 AM
Rev. Jerry Kramer
Conditions in the Middle East & Report on SCR Support in Iraq

"We embrace and celebrate the good in the communities

we are reaching and serving."

Rev. Jerry and Stacy Kramer are full-time front-line relief and recovery workers in the Middle East, while also addressing the worst poverty in E. Africa. In 2003, they founded Love for the Least, which cares for the most marginalized and forgotten, including widows, orphans, refugees, and victims of sex-trafficking. Presently, Love for the Least provides care, support, food, clothing, and education for hundreds of orphans in East Africa at three sites … but, most of all, they show LOVE for each individual they encounter.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Kramers were heavily involved in the recovery of New Orleans. They established the second largest and longest operating recovery and relief center on the Gulf Coast. And their poor African American community saw the highest rate of resident return to the city. This work was featured in Time Magazine, USA Today, the BBC, NPR, Times-Picayune and other media outlets.

The Harvard Kennedy School studied and documented the progress over five years and uses them as a case study for communities engaged in disaster recovery. In 2014, with the rise of ISIS in Iraq and the persecution of non-Islamic faiths across Kurdistan, Jerry and Stacey saw a major humanitarian crisis occurring and "ran to the fire." With the ISIS Caliphate scourge across Northern Iraq in progress, they set up a makeshift rescue and recovery operation for Christians, Jews, Yezidis, etc.

Over the years this effort has grown and materialized - such that L4L has been able to launch multiple refugee care and recovery centers for persecuted victims across the Middle East. Their team has had an impact on thousands, and today cares for 400+ orphans and 400+ widows in one UN Camp alone, while providing medical and dental care, food, clothing, education, and skills’ training at several other refugee settlements in the region.

One of their most recent success stories is their pioneering and establishment of affordable, sustainable, and replicable trauma care for the refugees and survivors of ISIS. Jerry and Stacy met at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. When in the U.S., their formal residence is New Braunfels, TX., although they spend most of their time traveling and speaking to Churches and other Non-profits on their recipe for humanitarian service.

Jerry holds an advanced degree from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, an MBA from The London School of Economics and Politics and has completed executive studies at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Oxford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They have three grown children with their daughter and her husband now serving with them in N. Iraq. Jerry Is a member of the Rotary Club of Space Center.