'Ibtisam' (Smile), is a psycho-social support project for children, carried out in five schools in Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG) thanks to the support of Caritas Switzerland.
The idea was born during the Iraqi humanitarian emergency of 2003, when the outbreak of violence in Baghdad caused the first large wave of displaced people forced to flee the city and find refuge in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and northern Iraq. The objective at the time was to provide Arabic curricula for displaced students in a region where the curricula were exclusively in Kurdish, and to provide safe spaces and recreational activities for children through the rehabilitation of 5 schools in the Nineveh Plain and Erbil Governorate areas.
A first phase of the intervention was planned in 2012. That same year, following the outbreak of the humanitarian emergency in Syria, the schools also took in child refugees fleeing their country and finding refuge in Iraq. Then, in the summer of 2014, the advance of Daesh in Iraq created a new wave of violence: some of the areas where we operated were occupied, the number of people displaced increased dramatically.
This is why our intervention has changed over the months. Funds for activities were used for first emergency distributions, then for school kits, and finally we moved with the fleeing communities, following them on their long journey to find a safe place to live.
Today 'Ibtisam' is in its second phase, and will continue until the end of 2017. The number of schools involved has grown from 5 to 13, with a total of 4,600 children accommodated thanks to the commitment of teachers, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who took part in our training sessions, play therapy sessions, resilience groups and other activities essential for children to overcome the trauma of war. Schools, those of 'Ibtisam', which have also become examples of integration between children from different backgrounds, but united by having had to live through terrible situations.
An intervention designed to recreate in the schools and inside the classrooms that climate of serenity and normality that is lacking in emergency situations and displacement conditions, to allow children to continue their schooling, but also to imagine a future free of fear. Last year's work yielded exciting results: in addition to the many children who benefited from it, the Erbil Mental Health Department chose to use it as a model for the modernisation of its facilities, in an attempt to integrate the education and mental health sectors. This is in line with our approach, which also sees the emergency as an opportunity to improve pre-existing conditions. In order to build a future in which there is no longer any need for humanitarian interventions, and the good things we have built together can remain, becoming a collective heritage.
