The Flickr Sinjar Image Generatr

In 2014, with the territorial gains of the Salafist militant group calling itself the Islamic State there was much upheaval in the Iraqi Yazidi population.
Islamic State captured Sinjar in August 2014 following the withdrawal of Peshmerga troops of Masoud Barzani, forcing up to 50,000 Yazidis to flee into the nearby mountainous region.
Wikipedia

Yazidis or Yezidis are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.
Wikipedia

Photo: UNDP Iraq/Claire Thomas

20 June 2018 - A view of Sinjar city from the Sinjar Primary Healthcare Centre, which has been rehabilitated with the support of UNDP's Funding Facility for Stabilization (FFS).

Photo: UNDP Iraq/Claire Thomas

Hash Hameed, 16th Jun 2019, Sinjar, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. Hash was my Dubai based marketing lady, but spent more time in Iraq than any of the London or Dubai based management team. She loved working with our business, and the business adored her in return.

In 2014 Islamic State came to Sinjar, and so began the genocide of the Yazidi. The most awful atrocities were committed here. We won work with UNMAS clearing explosive remnants of war from the area, employing mainly Yazidi girls, women deeply afflicted by conflict. I was humbled by their resilience.

Hash became and remains a great friend. An invaluable part of a great team, doing meaningful work, who were together much more than the sum of their parts.

Ibrahim Khalil is a talented Yazidi musician


Ibrahim Khalil is an outstanding artist of the Yezidish people. He was born on May 5,2000. Started singing from 8 years old, in a family of musicians. At the age of 11 he attended music school in Al Hasaka, Syria. Studied music in homely conditions.

His first song was published in 2012, in Germany. The songwriter is Ibrahim Khalil. The song is called “Beje Beje” with “M Music Production “. He hasn’t producer. Ibrahim Khalil has an album in social media, called “Lalisha Nurani” in Germany. A sought-after artist among the Yezidish people, continues to work and gaining more and more ratings.

In 2018 his first video “Lalisha Nurani” was published,which was dedicated to the Yezidish people. Seven months later the second clip comes out “De u Bave te” the clip was very found of , the author was Ibrahim Khalil. He sings Classic, Hip-Hop, Pop and National songs. In the pop genre in 2018, his clip “ Heyo” comes out, the author was himself. He graduated from school in Germany which name is “Clemen-Brentano-Eropaschule”. Ibrahim speaks four languages German, English, Yezidish and Kurdish. He received a diploma from “ Mala Ezdiya” as a “ Sought-after-Artist”. His last song is "Were dilo".

Sinjar, décembre 2014. ces membres des YJA-Star, les combattantes femmes du PKK, sont heureuses de se retrouver.

Sinjar in June. My lovely marketing lady spent time with our Yazidi staff, interviewing them about their experiences under ISIL. That evening she sat on the roof of our villa, deep in contemplation. In her own words ‘Drowned in despair’.

Nurse (left) talking to patients at the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support department of the Hospital in Sinjar. The MHPSS department was set up by Cordaid at the start of 2019. In the middel of the picture Zeynab Nabil, part of the Cordaid health team in Iraq and Sonita Khalil, Cordaid psychosocial worker at the Primary Health Centre In Seje.

All patients at the MHPSS Department in Sinjar are ISIS survivors, who have recently returned to Sinjar. Some of them have been kidnapped (mainly women and children) for months by ISIS, all of them have been displaced for years.

“This department is the only facility that provides mental health care and psychosocial support at hospital level in the whole of Sinjar”, explains Hala Saba Jameel, who coordinates Cordaid’s health program in Iraq. “We trained social workers and mobile teams, especially in recognizing and addressing gender based violence. We pay their salaries, provided the equipment and pay an incentive for the psychiatrist. Mobile staff goes out to the surrounding villages every day, talk to the families, try to find those who are most urgently in need of support and inform them of our psychosocial and mental health care activities. We make sure there’s always someone there for them, to listen to them and provide professional care. The department has been up and running for 5 months.

------------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Patients are being registered at the Primary Health Centre in Seje. The centre was set up two years ago and is still fully supported by Cordaid .

Seje is a christian village near the city of Duhok, in the Autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The village took in thousands of Yazidi IDPs after Sinjar was captured by ISIS in 2014.

Cordaid decided to start it’s health care intervention in Seje, at a time when the war with ISIS was still undecided, more than two years ago.

“This was the right spot to start”, says Albert van Hal, Cordaid’s Health program manager based in The Hague. “At the time we couldn’t enter Nineveh province, because of the war. Back then and still today, Kurdistan welcomed hundreds of thousands of IDPs. Many resided in camps. But a lot stayed inside and around villages like Seje. We knew the only health centre in Seje had been abandoned. So we decided to rebuild, re-equip and re-staff it, in collaboration with the Dohuk District of Health. Not only to provide health care for the displaced, mostly Yazidi families. Also for the host communities who were outnumbered and could hardly cope with the situation”, van Hal continues. “The idea was that if we do well in Seje, we can later expand to other locations.”

Today, the primary health care centre of Seje is the main health facility for many miles around. It has a doctor’s room, two nurses have their own unit, there’s a pharmacy, clean toilets, a waiting room, a room for psychosocial support. All chronic and common diseases are being treated here. The centre also has a well-equipped and staffed mobile clinic, that visits the surrounding villages on a daily basis.

----------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Room of Psychiatrist Dr Muhazim Muhammed, at the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support department of the Hospital in Sinjar. The MHPSS department was set up by Cordaid at the start of 2019.

All patients of the MHPSS department are ISIS survivors, who have recently returned to Sinjar. Some of them have been kidnapped for months by ISIS, all of them have been displaced for years.

“This department is the only facility that provides mental health care and psychosocial support at hospital level in the whole of Sinjar”, explains Hala Saba Jameel, who coordinates Cordaid’s health program in Iraq. “We trained social workers and mobile teams, especially in recognizing and addressing gender based violence. We pay their salaries, provided the equipment and pay an incentive for the psychiatrist. Mobile staff goes out to the surrounding villages every day, talk to the families, try to find those who are most urgently in need of support and inform them of our psychosocial and mental health care activities. We make sure there’s always someone there for them, to listen to them and provide professional care. The department has been up and running for 5 months.”
-------------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Near Dar Awash village, outskirts of Ba'ashiqa (Nineveh province). Just like the towns, the rural areas still show a lot of destruction that took place when this area was recaptured from ISIS in 2017.
------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Sonita Khalil, Cordaid psychosocial worker in Seje, talks to Khalil Ibrahim (42). Khalil, his wife and their 4 children fled from Sinjar when it was attacked by ISIS in 2014. They now live in an unfinished house in Seje, near the Primary Health Centre.

Like so many Yazidi's Khalil's family fled to the mountains, stayed there for days, saw many atrocities and survived on the little food and water they could find. "We saw the wounded, people who had fought with ISIS. There were no doctors. Women delivered their babies out in the open, with medical assistance. Some parents even forgot their children in the mountains, while running for their lives. Such was the chaos and the madness", he remembers. "Good people dropped food and solar chargers for our mobiles from the air", he continues.

The past 5 years Khalil and his family have lived in Seje. They live in an unfinished house. The owner allows them to stay there for free. "That is generous. But we don't know how long we can stay. I raise geese and sell them. That is our main income. And one son works in a wood carving shop nearby."

Going back to Sinjar is a constant pint of discussion. "I would like to one day. But it is still unsafe there", he says. "The fact that we now have an primary health centre here in Seje is very helpful. It improves our lives."

The Primary Health centre in Seje was set up two years ago and is still fully supported by Cordaid .

Seje is a christian village near the city of Duhok, in the Autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The village took in thousands of Yazidi IDPs after Sinjar was captured by ISIS in 2014.

Cordaid decided to start it’s health care intervention in Seje, at a time when the war with ISIS was still undecided, more than two years ago.

“This was the right spot to start”, says Albert van Hal, Cordaid’s Health program manager based in The Hague. “At the time we couldn’t enter Nineveh province, because of the war. Back then and still today, Kurdistan welcomed hundreds of thousands of IDPs. Many resided in camps. But a lot stayed inside and around villages like Seje. We knew the only health centre in Seje had been abandoned. So we decided to rebuild, re-equip and re-staff it, in collaboration with the Dohuk District of Health. Not only to provide health care for the displaced, mostly Yazidi families. Also for the host communities who were outnumbered and could hardly cope with the situation”, van Hal continues. “The idea was that if we do well in Seje, we can later expand to other locations.”

Today, the primary health care centre of Seje is the main health facility for many miles around. It has a doctor’s room, two nurses have their own unit, there’s a pharmacy, clean toilets, a waiting room, a room for psychosocial support. All chronic and common diseases are being treated here. The centre also has a well-equipped and staffed mobile clinic, that visits the surrounding villages on a daily basis.
------------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Sinjar, the part of the Yazidi city that is still in ruins, near the old hospital that was turned into a centre of rape by ISIS in 2014/2015.

Cordaid psychosocial worker Sonita Khalil visits the city for the first time since it was captured by ISIS on August 3rd 2014. She used to live in Sinjar.

“I was studying in the safe city of Duhok, when ISIS attacked Sinjar in 2014. My family was there. Not knowing their whereabouts and whether they had survived was horrible”, she remembers. Her family did survive. But their house was taken and damaged. And a big part of their city is in ruins. “I wanted to come her”, she says, driving through deserted and bombed streets. Some walls show black ISIS graffiti. “But I can barely look. I will never be able to live here again”, she says.
----------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Youngest children of Ghazal Ibrahim (35). Ghazal lives near the Cordaid supported primary health care facility in Dar Awash village, near Ba'ashiqa (Nineveh province).

"When I got bitten by a snake some weeks back, while working in the field, they treated me swiftly in the new health house. They took out the venom and gave me the right drugs. I was lucky", she says.

When ISIS came in 2014 she and her family were displaced and lived in an IDP camp. "Inside the camp my husband became sick. He had his kidney removed."

The family went back home after ISIS was defeated. "Our house was partly destroyed. We now have 1 room left to sleep, for 8 persons. And ISIS also destroyed our water well. So now we have to rely on the water truck, who comes by every 2 weeks. We also had an olive orchard. That too was destroyed by ISIS. We still have the land."

"We started living here 20 years ago, first in a mud house, later we built a brick one. We don't own the land. Which is a risk."

With her husband, who tries to find day jobs in Mosul, Ghazal is the main provider. "I work our plot of land and sell vegetables. I drive around in an old care, selling egg plants, cucumbers, tomatoes. I'm also a mechanic. I repair water pumps and generators and make some money with that."

"My husband had a truck accident, in the years before ISIS. He can't use his left arm. So next time ISIS comes I will defend our house. Even if it means we will die."

All patients of the health facility near Ghazal's house are returnees who lived as IDPs for months, some for years, after ISIS captured their village in 2014. Next to primary health care services, the facility offers psychosocial support and mental health services. Some of the psychosocial sessions focus on vocational training, others on awareness raising, gender based violence and other topics.

It is one of 4 primary health care facilities Cordaid rehabilitated in the rural outskirts of Ba'ashiqa (Nineveh province). These 'health houses' were plundered and destroyed by ISIS in 2014/2015 and recently rehabilitated from scratch and staffed with Cordaid support.

All of the health houses are located near a school and near or inside a village. “We wanted to restore them, because so many people can’t even afford transportation to the primary health centre in the town of Ba'ashiqa. And sometimes, in urgent cases, it takes too long to get there. And by revitalizing these rural health facilities, we unclog overburdened health services inside the town”, Amar Qassar from the Cordaid Health Team in Iraq explains.

Cordaid staff purchased container units – several for each health house – generators and medical equipment. We supply essential drugs. We pay the salaries of the nurses, pharmacists and social workers who run the facilities and treat the patients – more than 30 a day on average. We pay an incentive for the psychiatrist who visits the health houses once a week.
-----

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Amar Qassar, pharmacist and part of the Cordaid Health Team in Iraq, based in Erbil

-------------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

East Mosul, near Farouk street. "3 months ago this part of Mosul was still deserted. You only saw stray dogs. And you could still smell dead bodies. Today, to my surprise, I see some people here, even some shop owners who are selling vegetables", says Hala Saba Jameel, coordinator of Cordaid's Health Program in Iraq. Hala is based in Erbil.
----------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Nurses at work in the Primary Health Centre in Seje. The centre was set up two years ago and is still fully supported by Cordaid .

Seje is a christian village near the city of Duhok, in the Autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The village took in thousands of Yazidi IDPs after Sinjar was captured by ISIS in 2014.

Cordaid decided to start it’s health care intervention in Seje, at a time when the war with ISIS was still undecided, more than two years ago.

“This was the right spot to start”, says Albert van Hal, Cordaid’s Health program manager based in The Hague. “At the time we couldn’t enter Nineveh province, because of the war. Back then and still today, Kurdistan welcomed hundreds of thousands of IDPs. Many resided in camps. But a lot stayed inside and around villages like Seje. We knew the only health centre in Seje had been abandoned. So we decided to rebuild, re-equip and re-staff it, in collaboration with the Dohuk District of Health. Not only to provide health care for the displaced, mostly Yazidi families. Also for the host communities who were outnumbered and could hardly cope with the situation”, van Hal continues. “The idea was that if we do well in Seje, we can later expand to other locations.”

Today, the primary health care centre of Seje is the main health facility for many miles around. It has a doctor’s room, two nurses have their own unit, there’s a pharmacy, clean toilets, a waiting room, a room for psychosocial support. All chronic and common diseases are being treated here. The centre also has a well-equipped and staffed mobile clinic, that visits the surrounding villages on a daily basis.
------------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.

Primary health care facility in Dar Awash village, near Ba'ashiqa (Nineveh province). Women participating in a psychosocial support session. All participants are returnees who lived as IDPs for months, some for years, after ISIS captured their village. Some of the sessions focus on vocational training, others on awareness raising, gender based violence and other topics.

This Mental Health and Psycho Social Support unit is part one of 4 primary health care facilities Cordaid rehabilitated in the rural outskirts of Ba'ashiqa (Nineveh province). These 'health houses' were plundered and destroyed by ISIS in 2014/2015 and recently rehabilitated from scratch and staffed with Cordaid support.

All of the health houses are located near a school and near or inside a village. “We wanted to restore them, because so many people can’t even afford transportation to the primary health centre in the town of Ba'ashiqa. And sometimes, in urgent cases, it takes too long to get there. And by revitalizing these rural health facilities, we unclog overburdened health services inside the town”, Amar Qassar from the Cordaid Health Team in Iraq explains.

Cordaid staff purchased container units – several for each health house – generators and medical equipment. We supply essential drugs. We pay the salaries of the nurses, pharmacists and social workers who run the facilities and treat the patients – more than 30 a day on average. We pay an incentive for the psychiatrist who visits the health houses once a week.
-------

After the military defeat of ISIS in Northern Iraq, in 2017, traumas of the terror years came to the surface on a scale that far overstretched the existing health system. There were next to no mental health care or psychosocial support services for the many hundreds of thousands of traumatized displaced persons as well as the affected hosting communities.

All communities in Northern Iraq were indiscriminately traumatized by ISIS rule and the ensuing war, whether Arab, Kurdish, Christian or other groups. Nevertheless, the extent of targeted and organized brutalities against the Yazidi’s – especially against women and children – is unprecedented. Yazidi history knows many persecutions. This one stands out. It is reckoned that of the 550.000 Yazidi’s in Northern Iraq, 100.000 have fled abroad and 350.000 live a life in limbo in IDP camps. In the Yazidi capital of Sinjar alone, more than 70 mass graves have been unearthed so far.

In 2017 Cordaid started providing primary health care services to displaced Yezidi and Christian host communities in the village of Seje (in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). By that time IDPs in and around Seje already far outnumbered the host population. As of yet, most Yezidi families still fear to go back home. The health center – which also has a mobile clinic – is the only medical facility in a 10 km radius.

Gradually, Cordaid started adding mental health services and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the primary health care services in Seje. By then, the need to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety – especially among Yezidi women and children many of whom had been kidnapped, enslaved and abused by ISIS for months if not years – had become acute. Cordaid trained and recruited new staff to provide psychosocial support as well as psychiatric medical services and medication. The District of Health psychiatrist that comes weekly is one of only 24 in the whole of Iraq. The Cordaid social worker is a young Yezidi woman who can closely relate to the survivors she supports.

Since the start of 2019 and parallel to our work in Seje, Cordaid finances and staffs a MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Nineva province), right in the heart of former ISIS territory. It is one of the worst affected war zones. As displaced Yezidi families slowly begin to return to Sinjar, the need to provide psychosocial and psychiatric care is increasingly urgent. As prove the long waiting lines of patients as well as the overburdened psychosocial support and mobile teams.

In the town of Ba’ashiqa – known for its mixed Yazidi, Christian and Muslim population, also located in Nineva province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well staff basic health care services, as well as mental health and psychosocial support to ISIS survivors who have returned to their place of origin.

Lastly, in Tal Afar, another town on the former east-west ISIS axis toward Syria, mostly populated by Arab Turkmen, Cordaid is starting to provide MHPSS services as well as health care services for people with a disability. After years of warfare the need for these services has risen acutely.

By providing different types of care in different locations in and around former ISIS territory, Cordaid is strengthening a fragile health system in one of the most brutalized regions of the Middle East. In the longer run, by doing this and expanding our efforts, we aim to contribute to the social fabric and the feeling of trust, that is needed to return to a beginning of normalcy.