Dear Loyal Blog Reader,
They say a picture tells a thousand words. I will save the words, and leave you with the pictures. I hope they tell a few thousand words on our recent training of forty youth at the Kawrgosk and the Darashakran refugee camps based in Erbil.
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| And when there is a few minutes of time, we visit families in each of the tents |
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| The little ones always get our attention |
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| When we had to train at a tent, in the evening, and the electricity cut. |
The three of us, Anmar, Rasti and I, at points in our life we were refugees. Even though we were young and only glimpses or pictures are captured in our minds, we grew up with stories from our parents about the experiences of fleeing our home. Today, the three of us, all together, have spent weeks with youth in a refugee camp. A few years back we were trained by the UNFPA as Youth Peer Educators.
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| Rasti and I in action! |
At the time the three of us were just volunteers while we were students. Rasti in Media division at Salahaddin Uni, Anmar a student in the physical education college in Baghdad, Me, Politics and International Relations in Erbil. We were young, loving life and wanting to make a change. I guess you can say we had a little too much energy. Today, we have all graduated and have began our careers, but somethings just never change. Never.
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| Y Peer team! Give us a flip chart, a few markers and a group of youth! That's all. |
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| An activity that allows each of the participants to discuss their suffering, and if they decide to lose hope and put off their candles, others will light it for them once again. This activity almost always makes us cry. But we have found it is the most helpful activity with the refugees. You learn that you are not alone in your pain and suffering. |
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| We make new friends |
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| Day one of our training in Darashakran |
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| Rasti in action! |
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| Hospitality in the tents |
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| Hope. Life. Love. |
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| Anmar during one the sessions. Participants- group work |
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| ... [I could not think of a caption] |
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| Training doesn't stop, even if there's no electricity, even if it's night, even if it's freezing cold. No it doesn't. |
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| You learn to appreciate life much more when working with vulnerable people |
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| Under these tents there are many stories to be told |
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| Can you also call this your home? |
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| Rasti makes a new friend |
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| Hope. A little girl had made this outside her family's tent. |
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| "We put off the heater at night, because it's dangerous. The tent can burn down in less than two minutes." |
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| Rasty and Anmar writing their testimonies, now, as I put this post together... |
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| Words from Rasty about our recent training with Kurds in the Syrian Refugee Camp based in Erbil |
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| Words from Anmar! |
