WUNRN
How does it feel to be a little
Iraqi girl, seeing tensions in your town, but basically happy to study, play,
enjoy family...Then the crisis escalates to imminent danger; and your parents
grab you and your siblings and whatever you can carry, and run, literally, on
foot, or in a broken down vehicle, to find a safe place to hide, to survive.
You tuck your doll into your dress, because she is your comfort; she makes you
smile.
You and your siblings are hungry,
thirsty; but after days of walking, riding and hiding, you find a
refugee camp, and are registered. You want to continue to go to school, to
learn, to dream of a future. But, your parents are told that so many schools in
Iraqi Kurdistan have been closed for education and turned into refugee
camps/centers. Your family is told that some l/2 million young will not be
able to go to school at this time because the schools have been turned into
refugee crisis centers. You miss your girlfriends, your cousins and other
family. Where are they now? You worry.....
But, little Kurdish girl of Iraq,
hold on to your dreams.Study any way you can. You are fortunate to have
both parents and your siblings with you. But, your future is unknown; and you
want to Study, to Learn....
There is always hope, and you are an
important spirit for the female future of Iraq.
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Iraqi
Fleeing advancing IS
fighters, Kamal Faris and his family found refuge in a school turned into
refugee camp in
ERBIL,
The IS advance in this region, the autonomous Kurdish region of
A small minority has
found a temporary home with relatives living in other, safer cities, but for
most of the refugees, this was not an option and entire families became
refugees overnight. Faris’ family is one of them.
“Three
weeks ago, schools had been due to open start the new school year but the at
least 700 schools in the autonomous Kurdish region of
After what he says was
the worst journey in his life, 33-year-old Kamal Faris arrived in
“The children were
sitting in the car with three on each other’s lap, their faces pale with fear.
Inside me, everything was cracking from the pain of seeing them like that.”
Under normal
circumstances, the drive from Sareshka, hometown of the Faris family, to
“With every rough spot
in the road,” he continues, “we could hear the chassis of the car scrape on the
asphalt. Nobody dared to move, out of fear that the car would break down under
our weight.”
When they arrived, it
was in the middle of the summer holidays and schools that had earlier been full
of children were now makeshift homes for refugees like Faris.
At the
Faris and his family
have now been here for more than a month, together with dozens of other
families, packed into the narrow classrooms of the school in the centre of
Three weeks ago,
schools had been due to open start the new school year but the at least 700
schools in the autonomous Kurdish region of
The upshot is that
there are now more than half a million children who are not going to school as
planned this year.
“Despite the efforts of
the Iraqi authorities, the children who are currently living in these
classrooms, as well as the children who are supposed to come here to follow
classes, have no access to education,” said Save the Children’s director in
The United Nations has
released a statement requesting its humanitarian agencies to do all that they
can to help the government find proper accommodation for the refugee families,
hopefully before winter sets in.
But, for the refugees,
staying until the winter is far too long. “We just want to go home. As soon as
possible,” says Wazira.
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