Yezidi Women's Services

by Free Yezidi Foundation

Project Report | Dec 1, 2020
Newsletter - November 2020 - Friends

By Pari Ibrahim | Executive Director

FYF Monthly Newsletter - November 2020

FYF hand-knitted items, fall / winter 2020Dear friends,

This month our staff members and beneficiaries have been preparing for another winter ahead in the IDP camps. As last year's winter was very cold, our women's center beneficiaries have been making winter products for their family members or for sale in the community. We are anticipating the opening of a formal storefront in the coming months, where FYF will sell hand-crafted items by Yezidi women. Stay tuned for more developments in 2021!

FYF has also been producing thousands of masks and PPE for free distribution in the camps to combat COVID-19. Through a generous grant, FYF has been able to employ local Yezidi women to produce and distribute masks in the IDP camps. We remain extremely concerned by the prospect of COVID-19 spread through the camps and in Sinjar. In both locations, health provisions are low and the risk of spread and danger to vulnerable individuals is very high. We call on all organizations and leaders within the Yezidi community to emphasize the importance of adhering to WHO safety and health guidelines.

Toward the end of November, FYF participated in marking the global effort to highlight the importance of combating gender-based violence, sexual violence, and promotion of women's rights and women's equality. Organizations all over the world are taking 16 days of to highlight activism in this important field, which is also part of all FYF projects. As a women-led organization working with countless survivors of sexual violence and gender-based violence, we call for protection of women in every community in the world, including our own.

FYF Harikara discuss justice and women's rights in an IDP camp

The Free Yezidi Foundation also participated in two discussions hosted by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum this month, highlighting the situation facing Yezidis six years on from the ISIS genocide. FYF's Executive Director and Justice Project Manager participated in the two events.

This month, Samantha Elhassani was sentenced to more than six years in Indiana, United States, for her role in providing material support to a terror organization. The full US Department of Justice press release can be found here.

The Free Yezidi Foundation has been advocating for appropriate criminal charges for all members of ISIS, male or female, in all relevant jurisdictions in response to the genocide perpetrated against Yezidis. The role that all forms of financial, material, and human resource support that were extended to ISIS to help it achieve its ghastly aims - especially the sale, purchase, and rape of Yezidi 'slaves' in the ISIS caliphate - should be prosecuted.

In the News

Al-Monitor | Indiana Woman Gets 6 Years in Prison after Smuggling Cash for the Islamic State | This article quotes FYF comments on the Elhassani case.

Kurdistan-24 | Yezidis Suspicious over Syrian Opposition Leader Visit to Town in Afrin | This article includes comments from FYF on the situation of Yezidis in Afrin.

El Periodico | la Lucha del pueblo Yazidi seis anos despues del genocidio | This article (in Spanish) includes excerpts of an interview with the FYF Executive Director on post-genocide recovery.

Kurdistan-24 | Yezidis Official in KRG Responsible for rescuing Yezidi Awarded with Sergio Vieira De Mello Prize | This article includes the FYF position on continued efforts to rescue kidnapped Yezidis.

Finally, as we enter the Giving season, we again ask you to consider supporting the Free Yezidi Foundation.

Please donate to one of the FYF projects on GlobalGiving. To donate on GlobalGiving click here.

Thank you, friends, for your continued solidarity with the Free Yezidi Foundation and the Yezidi people.

Sincerely,

Pari Ibrahim
Executive Director
Free Yezidi Foundation

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