Vegetable shop for a Yazidi young boy

Jinda organization has opened a vegetable shop for a Yazidi young boy called Salam in Kabarto 2 camp in 26th March as he was one of the 38 beneficiaries targeted in "Support first help and basic stabilization of highly traumatized women and girl" funded by Salt Organization. The shop is an opportunity for Salam to bring money for his orphan sisters and brothers. Salam has two sisters and three brothers, he is the oldest brother in his family. Salam doesn’t go to school; he takes care of his family. By opening this shop, salam now have the chance to start his own business to take care of his family and to bring money for them. "offering me this small shop gives me this feeling that I can have my own work and made me not to think about the near future of my family, once my mom burned herself I became the one responsible for my smaller brothers and sisters, by this shop. I will consider it as a chance of new life" Salam added.

Kachona story

Kachona is a 24 years old Yazidi woman who lives in Sharya camp located in Northern Iraq Kurdistan Region. Sharya is one of the 13 camps in Dohuk that IDPs and Refugees settle in. Kachona is from Shingal Wardya village. In August 3, 2014, Kachona, her husband, and their child left their home. Like tens of thousands of other Yazidis, they hoped to take shelter on Mount Sinjar. But they never made it. Within a matter of hours, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) had encircled the city of Sinjar and its surrounding villages. Kachona's family was captured on the road and taken with dozens of other Yazidis who had tried to escape. The men were separated from the women and children. The women and children were beaten, insulted, threatened and starved, Kachona said. I wasn't separated from my husband and my child, we begged them not to separate us in return of doing whatever they want. Our family have been captured for one year and seven months. We followed their religion and we have been treated as slaves. "When I got married, my dream was to live a happy life with my husband and kids and a good future and Education for my family. They took all my dreams and turn it into a nightmare. Kachona added. Returning back from slavery and starting a new life was very difficult. Since then she have been settled in Sharya camp. Her Husband couldn't find a job because of his bad psychological statue. "I have started to see life from different perspective. Joined many courses provided by NGOs to learn new skills. One of them by Jinda NGO. I was interested in sewing". In May, I started working with Jinda as a sewer, I made hand made face masks. It was challenging in the beginning, per day i produced 20 masks. Now I produce 100" She added Proudly. Kachona worked to support her family and to buy new clothes, food and other daily needs. With the " Behind our Eyes" project by Crosspoint Europe support Kachona was able to support her family and her community. Kachona is one of the tweleve women supported in the project.

Asima,” my dream came true”

One of the participant in jinda’s project was Asima Qasim Hassan she is (27) years old from khanke camp. Now she owns a salon in the camp after she have received vocational courses in Jinda

“ I used to live in Shingal-Zoava bur after the war me and my family fled to Kurdistan. I have three sisters and five brothers. My family didn’t give us the chance to go to school because they think that education can only be for boys. So my brothers had the chance to go to school and finish their studies but we the girls were forbidden from education according to my parents its shame for girls to attend schools.” Asima also added “we spent our free time by taking care of the farm, it was my dream to go to school, although some of the girls in my village were able to go to school because their parents gave them that chance. I used to watch them every day going to school and it affected me a lot and made me cry. " “My father then let me to go to school, I hurried up and went to school and asked the principle to register me in. I was surprised with the principles reply as he asked me to be his girlfriend because I passed the age determined for school so in return he can sign me in. Since that day I wasn’t interested anymore in my dream.” “when we came to Kurdistan, we were based in Khanki camp. Our financial situation was very bad. We depended on the aid that the NGOs provided only just to survive. My parents were sick, none of us had any job." " In 2017, I heard that jinda organization will open courses for any person who is interested ,I was happy and I came to jinda for participation. The courses included (hairdressing, sewing, and handcrafts), I was interested in the hairdressing course and I was surprised that I was actually good in it. I was very happy and I gave them my phone number and location and address to contact me in case of other course. After a while I became a friend with Jinda staff because they helped lot and that’s why I need to participate for another course. After a short time I noticed that I became very talented and I was able to do my work in a good way. Sometimes used to do it to put some makeup for some girls who have occasions. After nine month I came to Jinda again for participating in computer course and I showed the staff the result of my work they became very happy and they asked me to send the pictures to them and they said if we opened a salon for you will you be able to work on it? I was very happy and I became confused and I didn’t know what to say. After a few days my dream came true and I started working and have my own business. Day by day I became more popular and number of customers increased. With the income of the salon I started helping my family which made me feel confident about myself. My dream now is to have a bigger salon and to start working in many areas. ” After all, I now believe that dreams really come true”