Kurdish families living in Nashville shudder at every news report on the intensifying conflict in northern Iraq.

hey have mourned the deaths of relatives caught in the armed conflict. They have feared for the safety of relatives either engaged in the fighting or among the thousands fleeing for safety.

Now, despite the helplessness of not knowing the fate of people they love, they have found a way to help.

Surpassing expectations, the Salahadeen Center of Nashville — a focal point of the largest community of Kurds in America — has collected more than 700 boxes of clothing, hygiene products and medical supplies to be shipped to refugee camps, mosques and school buildings overflowing with displaced men, women and children in the Duhok area of northern Iraq.

“When this crisis happened in Kurdistan, there were many people, as a result of attacks, that escaped from the cities. They were in a very hard situation,” said Nawzad Hawrami, office manager at the Salahadeen Center.

Since earlier this month, volunteers have invested more than 2,000 hours into organizing the wave of donations from local Kurds, health clinics and faith groups. The center also accepted a truckload of goods from Dallas, home to the nation’s second-largest Kurdish enclave.

“We told everybody,” Hawrami said. “It reflects very good brotherhood in the Nashville community. We don’t feel alone.”