Bringing help with the war next door
August 3rd 2014 was a day none of the 650,000 members of the Yazidi community of Northern Iraq will ever forget. On that day, the Nineweh Plain and the ancient Yazidi town of Sinjar were occupied by Islamic State, and the Yazidis were treated in a way the UN has since qualified as genocide. All Yazidi boys and men captured by Islamic State were killed, the women were raped and the girls were taken as sex slaves. 5,000 Yazidi men and boys are estimated to have been killed, and 7,000 Yazidi girls are believed to still be in captivity as sex slaves. Many of the several hundred thousand survivors who managed to escape were left with severe emotional and – for some– physical scars. 50,000 of the ones who escaped fled up on the tall Sinjar Mountain towering above the valley below, leaving everything behind as they surged up the mountainside. They only survived on the mountain due to a massive airlift of relief supplies led by the United States. 15,000 remained on the mountain and have been there ever since, but have since been joined by 10,000 other displaced Yazidis who prefer the mountain to the temporary refuge they had in neighboring Kurdistan of Northern Iraq. 25,000 people surviving on a barren mountainside – and most of them have now spent 16 months there. How is this possible?
Well, it would not be possible, if four NGOs, a local and three international, had not done what they could to help the Yazidis survive. Two NGOs have focused on the supply of water, a local NGO on the supply of dry food, and Mission East – as the only NGO in the world – focusing on winter assistance to the Yazidis on the mountain: tarpaulins, timber, toolboxes and now kerosene, jerry cans and kerosene heaters.
For this second winter, we have now helped 9,900 on the mountain – but 15,000 have received no help so far.
Please read the story and see the pictures describing the fate of the Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain – as well as a visit to Sinjar town down below, with scenes reminiscent of Berlin and Dresden after World War II: Hardly any building left intact - and dead bodies lying in the rubble.
Please do what you can to spread this story and provide help for the displaced Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain.
Kim Hartzner, MD,
Managing Director
Read MoreWell, it would not be possible, if four NGOs, a local and three international, had not done what they could to help the Yazidis survive. Two NGOs have focused on the supply of water, a local NGO on the supply of dry food, and Mission East – as the only NGO in the world – focusing on winter assistance to the Yazidis on the mountain: tarpaulins, timber, toolboxes and now kerosene, jerry cans and kerosene heaters.
For this second winter, we have now helped 9,900 on the mountain – but 15,000 have received no help so far.
Please read the story and see the pictures describing the fate of the Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain – as well as a visit to Sinjar town down below, with scenes reminiscent of Berlin and Dresden after World War II: Hardly any building left intact - and dead bodies lying in the rubble.
Please do what you can to spread this story and provide help for the displaced Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain.
Kim Hartzner, MD,
Managing Director
Throughout their century long history, Yazidis have been persecuted for their special religion, which is based on old Zarahustrian beliefs. Central to the ethnic identity of the Yazidis is a century old resistance to converting to Islam. This identity was tested once again on August 3rd 2014 as several thousand Yazidis paid with their lives, and many more were enslaved to Islamic State warriors that had come from all over the world to subjugate members of ancient civilizations of the Middle East.
