Erica founded Operation Hope in 2016 as an extension of her volunteer work which began with newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers in Brisbane in 2012.

For a number of years Erica coordinated several playgroups that drew refugee children and their families into a warm, accepting and supportive group within the local community. Erica started collecting donated household items and furniture to assist these families as they settled into their own homes in Brisbane. Erica assisted a large group of volunteers at her local church who offered English classes, legal clinics, community meals – and that work still continues to this day. Erica relocated to Newcastle, NSW in late 2016 and that is when Operation Hope became an entity with Erica’s fulltime commitment to fundraising, volunteering in Kurdistan and scoping projects where Operation Hope could make a difference in the lives of the refugees and Internally Displaced People.

In 2018 Kim and Erica Henley registered Operation Hope Australia Ltd as a not for profit company – which reflects our long term commitment to the projects of Operation Hope.  We are now a registered Australian charity and a benevolent institution.

Each trip has brought new challenges, new projects and new friendships with these beautiful people. It is a honour to share love and hope and bring some measure of dignity to the internally displaced people and to contribute to existing projects occurring in Kurdistan.  

After the commencement of the war and genocide on Gaza in late 2023, Operation Hope partnered with a trusted and respected UK registered NGO RBB (Refugee, Biryani and Bananas) to finance food and aid distributions in Gaza. Over the past 2 years Operation Hope has raised over $A90,000 which has supported the distribution of aid (via trucks crossing the border from Egypt in Gaza); Fresh vegetables and non perishable food purchased and delivered within Gaza; Hundreds of tankers filled with water delivered to refugees in camps in Gaza; Trucks of flour brought across the border from Jerusalem into Gaza – thousands of families were given a 25kg sack of flour in late 2025. Our food projects in Gaza are ongoing despite the life threatening risks for the volunteers. Our support for families in Gaza will continue – we are in this for the long term.