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Assistance for Female Yezidi Refugees / WADI & COMPANY (CLICK BOTTOM LINK FOR PICS)

Mobile Female Lead Interventions Teams give Assistance to Yezidi Refugees who escaped the Terror of the Islamic State in Dohuk Province

The takeover of Mosul by the Islamic State (ISIS) and adjacent areas, including the subsequent attack on the Yezidi heartland of Sinjar, has led to a large number of internally displaced Yezidis moving into the Dohuk governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan, adding yet another dimension to a humanitarian disaster unparalleled in the modern history of Iraq.

While many organizations are offering aid in the way of food, medicine and items to help with winter, WADI’s mobile Dohuk teams, whose work has been made possible by assistance from the Foreign Ministry of Germany and cooperation from Dohuk-based partner Alind organization, are offering help of a different kind. The WADI Dohuk teams consist of committed young women who visit various refugee camps and other locations where Yezidi refugees live and offer psychosocial help.

In addition to this psychosocial assistance, the teams also provide hygienic items and assistance to the refugee women, and extremely important but often forgotten part of the relief effort as, unfortunately, women’s basic needs tend to be neglected in emergency situations.

The teams also gather data on the current plight of Yezidi refugees, speak to female survivors of ISIS abuse and women and girls who have returned from ISIS custody, and offer any other aid possible. Additionally, the teams are in close contact with local authorities and other organizations in order to work together to provide further help to Yezidis, for example, arranging transport to hospitals for the sick.

There are, in total three Dohuk teams, each consisting of two women, one of whom herself is Yezidi. As the teams each have a female member who is a part of the Yezidi community, the teams have found that they are more easily accepted by the refugees.

This concept of the mobile teams, based on more than ten years of experience that WADI has with this approach, is predicated on the idea of going to where the women are and providing help within the women’s environment rather than taking them out of their living spaces.

The Dohuk mobile teams are specifically focusing on the Yezidi women and girls that have returned from ISIS as they are very traumatized, both physically and mentally.

It is estimated that there were more than 5,000 girls and women captured by ISIS and, according to first hand reports, these girls are systematically raped and physically abused nearly to the point of death. The women and the girls that return are in dire need of various types of assistance – the physical consequences of sexual abuse include unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other physical issues, to say nothing of the grave and far reaching mental trauma inflicted upon these women. Coping with these issues is made more difficult by the conservative nature of the affected community, which has always been hesitant to have its women exposed to outsiders.

In addition to this effort, the teams are also looking after about 102 Yezidi families living in incomplete building structures that WADI, Alind and CPT are financially supporting, providing items ranging from medicine, clothing, and cooking supplies to plastic covers to help protect them from the wind, rain, and cold. 

Sadly, the catastrophe, which has displaced many tens of thousands of Yezidis, is ongoing and the most marginalized members of society are quickly falling through the cracks as this humanitarian disaster persists. The IDPs and, more specifically, the abused women, the orphans and the handicapped children and adults, are facing enormous challenges, ones that will not be solved anytime soon or through one or two sittings. The current efforts are merely a beginning, and an attempt to gather first hand information crucial for future efforts that will be necessary. These teams work as the eyes and ears in the places where Yezidis reside, and without them any further work and assistance for the Yezidis, and for the women in particular, will be made very difficult.

We need more mobile teams and more committed women to participate, and this will be possible with increased help from the international community. Now is your time to show that you care, and with winter here and security threats showing no sign of abating, time is of the essence.