Host Families Needed: Welcome 20 Iraqi Teens to Kalamazoo
You can help! Global Ties Kalamazoo is urgently seeking home and family hosts for 20 Iraqi high school students visiting this summer through the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program (IYLEP), July 15-28.
This is our only youth ambassador program in 2026, and the need for hosts is especially urgent. There is so much uncertainty in Iraq, and last year this program was cancelled because airspace closed. After that disappointment, finally welcoming this group to Kalamazoo is especially meaningful, for the students and for our community.
At the same time, it has been deeply challenging to find enough host families. We need more local households to step forward so these young leaders can experience the kind of people-to-people exchange that makes Kalamazoo’s IYLEP program so special. For many hosts, and visitors, the most powerful moments happen not in formal activities, but in everyday life at home.
The Impact: One Family’s Story
Board member Christy Chambers shared, “I feel like it’s really powerful, impactful work to do, both for our own family and for myself personally, and for the community as well.” She first opened her home as a host and then deepened her involvement: “I became a board member because I got involved hosting and loved it so much that I really wanted to support the organization.”
Her husband and host Dad, Dan Stevens describes a similar impact: “We chose to be a host family because we are a family, and bringing other people into our family enriches our lives.” When their family hosted two teenage girls from Iraq, “the relationship that they developed with our 10 year old was just priceless.”
One of his favorite memories came during a summer rainstorm, when everyone else moved under a porch, but “the two Iraqi girls just started dancing in the rain, and it was just an incredibly beautiful moment.”
These small, shared experiences are what citizen diplomacy looks like in daily life. Christy notes that time around the table helps her children see what they share with people from around the world: “At the end of the day, we’re all people and we have so much more in common than we might think.”
Dan sees how these exchanges shape Kalamazoo as a whole: “Kalamazoo gains cultural riches. It makes us a more knowledgeable place. It makes us a stronger community. If we bring other people in and see how other people live, it brings down barriers, and it makes connections easy.”
“Kalamazoo gains cultural riches. It makes us a more knowledgeable place. It makes us a stronger community. If we bring other people in and see how other people live, it brings down barriers, and it makes connections easy.””
Kalamazoo is the only city to have hosted every single IYLEP high school emerging English program (since 2017). That track record is something this community can be proud of, but it only continues when local families say yes to hosting. A perfect house is not required.
We can’t show their faces on the internet, but the cohorts are this fun!
Come As You Are
As Dan encourages, “Come as you are… come to our table and be you, and we will be us, and just don’t worry about pretenses, just jump in.” Host families provide a safe, welcoming place to stay, a bed (students may share a room with a same-gender host sibling), meals, and inclusion in the rhythms of family life.
This is the Moment
If you have ever considered hosting, this is the moment. With last year’s cancellation and this year’s challenge recruiting host families, your hospitality can ensure all 20 Iraqi teens and adult mentors are welcomed into homes, for a life changing experience. To learn more and sign up to host, please visit the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program here. Have questions about hosting? Check out our FAQs here, or reach out at info@globaltieskzoo.org.
Dan and Christy will be hosting once again this summer. Will you join them?