Women's Rights

True empowerment could only flourish when words said in front of cameras by leaders or those holding the power, are implemented in everyday life. Only through equal rights and responsibilities for men as well as women, lives could be rebuild after genocide. The heavy burden cannot be left to women only, they have already suffered the most

Women's Holistic Health centre

The women’s holistic health centre is a dedicated space for survivor women. The centre helps to support our ongoing mission which is to provide treatment, rehabilitation, education and empowerment for Yazidi genocide survivors. 

Since 2014 Joint Help for Kurdistan has provided basic healthcare services to the camp population through our field clinic, as well as initiatives to support education, mental health, women’s empowerment, and emergency relief to poor and orphaned families.

Over time the team at JHK felt that it was essential to have a dedicated women’s space to offer truly holistic support programmes for the most vulnerable women: from medical care to social activities and skills training. 

On the 3rd of August 2018 Joint Help for Kurdistan officially opened the Women’s Holistic Health Centre which is a dedicated space for women at Bajed Kandala 2 camp.

The beauty of our Women’s Holistic Health Centre at Bajed Kandala camp is that it is run by local women themselves, by survivors of genocide and slavery who come together to learn and to build and to grow. 

The Holistic Women’s Centre is built by our kind supporters and donors who have contributed in their own different ways: by giving money, sewing machines, furniture, or donating their time and expertise to teach workshops We are particularly grateful to Ms Sevi, a genocide survivor and gifted tailor who has been teaching close to 70 women since 2017.

Survivors rescued from captivity

Five years after the Yazidi genocide, more than 3000 Yazidi girls are still missing. Rescue operations by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and Syria are in process to free Yazidi girls from captivity and enslavement, but mostly searching family members or relatives of these girls are the ones who look to find them and get them back by paying ransoms.

With the purpose of providing rehabilitation and re-integration into their communities, our professional health care team meet female survivors rescued from captivity on a daily basis. Such encounters may include doctors appointments, language classes in Kurdish (in some cases the girls have been brain washed or tortured to forget their mother tongue Kurdish), daily empowering activities and field trips to nearby cities or to the nature. We try to take small steps with the girls to get them back on track with their minds and lives and to make them feel safe among their families and relatives, who usually live in different camps around Kurdistan as internally displaced persons.

The great resilience within each survivor. has kept them alive through all atrocities in the hands of Isis. However we often witness that rescued survivors bear feelings of deep guilt and shame when they come back. Many times it takes a long time for their families to accept them back due to sorrow. chock or cultural hindrance which intensifies their feelings of guilt and shame. It also makes the re-integration process hard and long. It is not unusual to see that these girls find themselves in captivity yet again, but this time by society rather than by terrorists. That is why we focus our resources on empowering activities to rebuild the survivors self-confidence and strengthen their great resilience

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Please support our work

Our activities include emergency relief, healthcare, education, women’s empowerment, civil society support and rehabilitation for genocide survivors. Please support our work by making a donation. All amounts are deeply appreciated. Thank you!