WHAT IS API?

The Ayla Project International (API) is a nonpolitical humanitarian organization born in the Fall of 2023 in response to the Middle East crisis. API is envisioned to eventually expand beyond the Middle East to serve families in areas of conflict around the world. “Ayla” means “resilient” in Scottish, “light around the moon” in Turkish, “oak tree” in Hebrew, and “family” (Ayala) in Arabic.

In December 2023, Islandia Firm International Executive Director Tara Britton, learned about the plight of a three-year old girl named Lulu in the conflict zone in the Middle East from her friend Cari. With the outbreak of war, Lulu’s congenital cardiac condition deteriorated rapidly, and her life was in imminent danger.

Tara Britton, Rula Khoury and Cari Conklin-Larsen formed a volunteer team to assist Lulu and her family along with Tara's Cambridge classmate and former representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Following two months of work and closed doors, even from the ICRC, the team successfully evacuated Lulu, along with her mother and her 5 and 6-year-old brother and sister, from Rafah to Al Nas Children’s Hospital in Egypt at the end of January 2024 in a climactic event that could only be described as Hollywood movie worthy. This was the genesis of the Ayla Project.

The Ayla Project team assists in the stabilization, evacuation and relocation of women, children and families, many of them with critical medical needs, to places of safety. The project also addresses refugee family needs holistically for sustainable resettlement. We exercise a flexible, adaptable approach, meeting the needs of each family where they are at. 

OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH HORIZONS

Horizons International (also serving refugees) is a strategic partner of the Ayla Project and is now receiving tax-deductible contributions toward the project, with a low 5% administrative fee. Islandia Firm International has stepped in to provide pro-bono strategic, administrative and development support for the project.