Northern Iraq: The Lotus Flower creates safe spaces for women and girls
In 2014 the team at our partner organisation The Lotus Flower started providing support for survivors of the armed groups of IS in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, northern Iraq. They offer training opportunities, literary courses and English lessons. They run a hotline for survivors of violence and campaigns for women’s rights. Special support for traumatised boys and men has also been developed by their staff. Outside the camps, The Lotus Flower is working to ensure the participation of women in decision-making processes.
No prospects for the future in northern Iraq’s refugee camps
Specialist staff help the women and girls to process their experiences of violence, using individual and group therapy sessions – and boxing lessons. The tough training helps them to reduce stress, self-defence techniques increase self-confidence, and the community of female boxers also offers an additional source of strength. They then take this strength with them out into the camps. The refugee camps provide some safety, but almost no work – and no prospects for the future.
“Life in a refugee camp is barely tolerable, but it is still better than returning,” says Kheria. With her family, the 15-year-old fled from the armed groups of IS in Sinjar into the surrounding mountains. She saw women and children die, and her hometown and many nearby villages have been destroyed. In many places, IS fighters laid mines before they retreated into the mountains. And the fighting continues: militias and government forces are fighting for control of oil deposits, and Turkey repeatedly attacks positions held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK.
The Lotus Flower: Resilient and strong, even in northern Iraq
Staff from The Lotus Flower have managed to create spaces where women can share and join forces to break out of the hopelessness that prevails in the refugee camps. The two founders Vian Ahmed and Taban Shoresh had good reasons for choosing the name of their organisation: the petals of lotus flowers have a special surface which repels dirt.
“Resilient and strong, the lotus flower grows in muddy water, only to blossom into something incredibly beautiful.”
The first blossoms of their work are already visible: Kheria is currently taking an English course at The Lotus Flower and wants to continue learning in order to be able to contribute actively to peace processes. And in the Rwanga refugee camp, two successful participants of the bakery course have now opened their own cake shop.
