We couldn’t have prevented the war, but we can level its results

Each of the three of us has his role in the foundation and tries to fulfill its tasks as well as possible.

We are travelling around Poland to meetings and fundraisings, we prepare materials which we can later present to you, we put together a plan of activities, and spend hours talking to our friends in Iraq. When we finally manage to meet in the office, we exchange thousands of thoughts and set next targets. Sometimes we say that we work 24/7. Sitting in front of the computer at night and weekends away from home confirm that. To clarify, each one of us knew what he was taking upon himself and we do it with great satisfaction from every successful action.
When we receive information about a newly opened workplace or a succesfully completed project, we feel somehow victorious. As it would not be possible wihtout you, your account of success increases as well. We can add some more to the list.

Several days ago the works related to reparing of a power grid section in Borek town in Sinjar were successfuly completed.

Borek is a Yazidi town where 20,000 people lived before the war. It is the same town where we built a greenhouse in June. Slowly life returns there, but like in other parts of the region, it is still unsafe. Despite that, many families have decided to come back.

After two weeks of works, half a kilometer of power grid was repaired, and 40 connections and 3 utility poles were exchanged. The Yezidi Human Rights Organization, which we cooperate with practically from the very beginning of our work in Iraq, was responsible for carrying out the task. Earlier they carried out repair works in Yafriyya and Wardiya. The cost was slightly abobe 5,500 dollars, or 21,000 zlotys. The entire cost, including the workers’ salaries, the purchase of materials, transport and the equipment rent, was not very high. It will increase the safety and comfort of Borek’s residents, although we are very much aware that it is just a drop in the ocean of needs. The state of the electric power infrastructure is still very poor causing many installation fires.

In Khanke, a hometown to 30,000 Yazidis, two little hairdresser’s salons have been opened.

A list of workplaces opened within the Great Job framework has also become longer and currently includes fifty five such places. The first salon will be run by Layla, and the second by Asia. It can be said they are more like beauty salons: their offer, apart from haircutting, includes make up and all the other things which, as a man, I have no idea about. All I know is that every woman in every corner of the world wants to look pretty. It does not matter if its a large European city, or a camp for internally displaced persons in Iraq.

Thanks to these salons, two families will receive a source of income.

Layla’s family constist of eleven people. The girl is the only one who can provide for them. Her father has undergone a heart surgery, her mother fights cancer, while her brother was killed by ISIS in Mosul. Nothing smart can be written here. We are only hoping that they will be getting on.
Asia Kamal will run the second salon. The girl suffers from kidney stones and needs constant medication. Her family consists of seven people, her including. We will be monitoring how they are getting on and we will try to help them again if there is a need.

I will close less optimistically.

Two weeks ago a mass grave of seven people was exhumed in Qaraqosh by the UN team. Most probably it was one or two families murdered by ISIS in 2014. The grave was already found in 2017 by the residents who retruned to the city after its liberation. They dugged out the bodies which were identified by the clothes and jewelery. Later they buried them in the same cemetery in the presence of a priest. However, no documentation was gathered. A Yazidi journalist who was there during the first exhumation in 2017 took pictures which showed signs of execution. Only now, after five years, international organizations have started investigation to gather evidence proving ISIS attrocities. From the end of the last year 200 such graves have been found. According the UN estimates, 12,000 ISIS victims can be burried there.