Jinda’s Annual Report about Assistance for Yazidi Girls and Women

Wadi’s close partner in Dohuk, the Jinda Center is helping Yazidi girls and women who survived captivity and slavery of the Islamic State (IS). Since 2015 they are offering psychological assistance and practical help for hundreds of these victims.

This is a short excerpt of the impressive report about their activities in 2018:

“The center offers referral for first psychological aid, health aid and guidance, legal and social aid , recreational aid. The girls receive awareness training on women’s rights, women’s health andstrategies to cope on a very basic and practical level with traumatic experiences. However, the main purpose of the center is to give these girls a pleasant place where they can meet, chat, relax and havea good time after all the traumatic events they experienced and considering the sad and precarious everyday life in the camps.

Everything is focused on the wellbeing of the girls. The concept is based completely on free choice.

The girls decide if and when they participate and which activities they prefer to join. Hence, the schedule is kept flexible, activities are discussed with the girls and new ideas may be realized. In general, a group of around 25 girls from one of the camps is visiting the center on 5 days/week for 23 weeks.They are free to choose among various kinds of workshops and vocational courses, i.e. sewing, art, beauty salon, jewelry making, computer, English, etc.

Women and girls who have stabilized and regained some level of self-esteem and self-consciousness are ready to participate in the vocational and farming courses offered through this project. The programme includes economic empowerment and increasing opportunities. Women are for example trained to produce traditional necklaces and other jewelry for the market. The center supports the women infinding distribution channels. The producers receive 100% of the profit. The same concept is applied to gardening: Instructed by a professional gardener the girls may grow crops in a nearby greenhouse and then sell the products on the market.”