Origins

The Mehadi Foundation was founded in 2004 by Lance Corporal Jeff Key, USMC, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity.

The Foundation is named for a young Iraqi boy from the town of Badrah whom the organization's founder, Jeff Key, met while he served as a United States Marine during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Mehadi’s hopefulness and unreserved generosity in the midst of great adversity and poverty exemplify The Mehadi Foundation’s core values. He's symbolic of our ability to make connections despite cultural and language barriers.

The Foundation developed from Jeff’s growing awareness of the immeasurable value of peer support and his own experiences with creativity as a healing practice which he has transformed into a critically-acclaimed play, The Eyes of Babylon.