Yezidi Children's Safe Space

Yezidis Continue to Struggle in IDP Camps

Flash floods in IDP camps
Credit: anonymous photographer

Dear Friends,

Activities at the Free Yezidi Foundation Center
Credit: Free Yezidi Foundation

FYF activities in the camp

Since 2015, FYF has operated a women’s center and a children’s center in the Khanke IDP camp. In the women’s center, FYF instructors, all Yezidi IDPs themselves, provide instruction in various courses. Our psychologists offer dynamic courses to help build resilience, overcome trauma, and deploy creative methods including art, sports, and music to bolster social cohesion and confidence. FYF is helping women to systematically craft and sell sewn and knitted items. Through this, they can provide some basic income to improve their living conditions. Our women’s rights instructor also provides information to the women and girls about family rights, legal support, non-discrimination, and laws in support of women and children. Providing accurate information is essential, and FYF psychologists have begun camp-wide seminars to help inform residents about trauma, coping mechanisms, and resilience.

We are expecting to dramatically expand our activities both in and out of camp in 2018. We want to provide Yezidis, especially Yezidi women, with the chance to attain greater economic strength and self-sufficiency. Stay tuned for further developments!

FYF trauma therapist conducts community meeting about trauma and coping strategies
Credit: Free Yezidi Foundation

Justice

Yezidis in Iraq and abroad are eager to see justice and accountability for the crimes committed against our people. At the same time, there has been a disturbing and growing trend in the efforts to promote justice for Yezidis. Firstly, a variety of actors have begun working with Yezidi survivors, and we have noticed some unfortunate trends in unethical and exploitative behavior. We believe justice requires a victim-centric approach, but we have found some individuals, organisations, lawyers, advocates, journalists, and consultants view the suffering of Yezidis as opportunities for themselves or a chance for ‘humanitarian tourism’ experiences. In our efforts to listen to and understand victims concerns and wishes, we have noted that many of the professionals who should be helping survivors are in fact exploiting their suffering for personal reasons.

We hope that the international community and human rights actors will adhere strictly to best practices and codes of conduct when dealing with Yezidi survivors, especially survivors of sexual violence. And we call upon foreign governments to ensure that they are not supporting unethical and exploitative practices. All those seeking to help Yezidis must in the first instance ensure that they are not re-victimizing the survivors!

Yezidi woman sewing at the Free Yezidi Foundation Center 
Credits: Free Yezidi Foundation

In coming months, we will be sharing some further developments in advocacy, humanitarian work, justice, and political representation for Yezidis.

 
Sincerely,

- Pari Ibrahim
Executive Director
Free Yezidi Foundation

Remember Yezidis on International Women's Day

A Yezidi women in an IDP camp after fleeing ISIS attack against the Yezidis in Sinjar

FYF statement for International Women’s Day 2018

Today, on March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day. For many women and girls around the world, this is a day of hope, inspiration, and solidarity.
 
For the Yezidi community, international women’s day is another opportunity to draw attention to 3000 missing women and children, still in the hands of ISIS or in unknown locations, forgotten by the international community but forever in the hearts of the Yezidi people.
 
For the thousands of women and girls who managed to escape, daily life is a struggle and haunting memories persist. Our psychologist, working with women and girls in an IDP camp, explains, “It has been three years since ISIS attacked the Yezidis, and they live in displacement, which has its own stress. This diminishes their ability to move on, as individuals and as a community. I do believe that justice would help the community move forward.” She continues, “I have heard of so many suicides, it is shocking. The trauma that members of the community have experienced remains a very serious matter.”
 
The burden of daily livelihood and combatting depression falls very hard on men, women, and children alike in the IDP camps. This is why FYF pays particular attention to the psychological well being of survivors, working to prevent women and girls from re-traumatization or exploitation.
 
The Free Yezidi Foundation supports all efforts in 2018 to draw attention to the rights, needs, and empowerment of women and girls across the world. Special attention should be given to women and girls experiencing or overcoming the most acute suffering, including Yezidi women and others who have experienced sexual violence.

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On this day we thank Women for Women International / UK for the continuous support to the Free Yezidi Foundation's women's center. With the help of WfWI, we have been able to educate and serve hundreds of women and girls. We also would like to thank the whole team at the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, for supporting our trauma program, for the benefit of Yezidi women and girls.

The Free Yezidi Foundation is competing in Global Giving's Girl Fund campaign. We are now ranked #23 out of 164 projects. If we can move up to the top four spots, our project could be funded for an entire year! This competition is for the number of unique donors. So we are seeking as many individual donors as possible. Please consider contributing $10 or more by March 14th by clicking here. We are grateful for any assistance you can provide.

To our generous friends and individual supporters, thank you for standing with our women and girls. We are grateful to you for your support!

Sincerely,

- Pari Ibrahim
Executive Director
Free Yezidi Foundation