"We’re trying to make it like there’s no difference.”
“I’m very excited about this. It’s a nice day. Everything is perfect.”
Armed with a clipboard and a pen, Shelan, 24, is taking details of attendance at a large social gathering in Amedi that and her fellow volunteers have been organizing for several weeks. This morning they are hosting a special guest: the Kurdish Minister for Youth and Culture.
He has come to inspect a UNICEF-supported programme that encourages peace and social cohesion amongst people from Amedi and the 3,000 displaced Iraqis, mostly from Anbar, who live nearby.
Supported by generous contributions from the Government of Japan and Germany’s KfW, the programme includes art, sports, and social activities. On the day of the minister’s visit, several young people are painting a school wall with cartoon characters as young children from Amedi look on.
A little later the minister watches as two girls’ teams play a spirited game of football at the local stadium. The teams have been carefully chosen to mix children from different backgrounds.
Community outreach is another feature of the programme, and social gatherings such as picnics encourage the participation of entire families. Overall, in the first two weeks about 1,400 people had taken part in the activities.
To counter the language barrier — Iraqis displaced from Anbar speak Arabic while the host community is Kurdish — language classes have been organized in English, Arabic and Kurdish, and a Facebook page has been set up to provide an on-line avenue for new friends to stay in touch.
The programme is run by 166 volunteers, including 64 women. Shelan, who is from Amedi, was one of the first to sign up. Today she’s collecting details of people who attended the event, noting their ages, where they are from, and whether they have special needs. “The moment I came into the project I made a lot of new friends and I’m very happy about it,” she says.
She’s confident that the programme has the potential to become an established part of life in Amedi, a town with a long history and a rich tradition of cultural tolerance.
“We’re trying to make it like there’s no difference between all of us; we’re trying to make a big family, and to advance our community,” she says.
Chris Niles is a Consultant with UNICEF Iraq.
For direct donations to UNICEF in Iraq: http://support.unicef.org/campaign/donate-children-iraq
