Back to Sinjar: the story of Sonita, a Yazidi social worker | Cordaid

Sonita Khalil is a 25-year-old social worker from Sinjar, Iraq. When ISIS attacked and occupied Sinjar in 2014, they kidnapped, raped and killed thousands of Yazidis. Sonita now works for a mental healthcare program in Seje, near the city of Duhok. This is the first time she visits her hometown after it has been liberated. 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 an MHPSS department in the Clinic of Sinjar (Ninevah 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 Ninevah province, Cordaid has rehabilitated 4 health facilities that were previously plundered and dismantled by ISIS. Here as well as 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. --- Working in and on Fragility Cordaid is a global development organization whose mission is to create flourishing, self-reliant communities in the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected areas. Together with local actors, we rebuild trust and stability by tackling multiple challenges in healthcare, education, food security and more. We use results-based financing and local investments to secure solutions to complex problems. Care. Act. Share. Like Cordaid www.cordaid.org Facebook: Cordaid Twitter: @Cordaid Instagram: @Cordaid