"We deserve life, the right to live, attention, health, education, safety, play, peace, identity, nationality. Protection from violence, neglect, exploitation, sex. Every child has the same rights."
The ISIS attack on Sinjar, Iraq was a failed attempt to destroy the Yezidi people. Unfortunately the ensuing war to remove ISIS in November 2015 destroyed much of the Yezidi homeland. Houses and businesses were made uninhabitable and the land was filled with mines (IEDs). When the Yezidis said ‘enough’ of the internally displaced people (IDP) camps in Kurdistan and started filtering back to Sinjar they found no homes, no schools, not even safe streets for children to play in.
We were asked by our friends at Yezidi Emergency Support to fund a ‘child-friendly space’ for children to safely play, learn a bit, and have a snack. Over time the project focused on teaching maths, English, Arabic and Kurmanji and moved into a new building. It has become a full program with art, music, history and IT thanks to support from Woven Teaching.
Through your support we have also been able to fund a second project with Nabu Organization for Awareness in the village of Tel Banat outside of Sinjar.
The streets are much safer now as most of the mines have been removed; slowly the infrastructure of the area is improving and there are even some other educational opportunities. Yet both programs still have waiting lists full of children hoping to get the benefit these programs provide.
The location of the education projects in Sinjar, northern Iraq.