Promoting democratic governance and social cohesion in Iraq by improving collaboration between social actors and strengthening the participation of young people within Civil Society organisations in the field of peacebuilding. This is the aim of 'Mesopotamian Youth', a new three-year programme supported by the European Union, launched in March 2017 in Iraq.

Among the topics at the centre of the work are human rights, the protection of Iraq's environmental and cultural heritage, the inclusion of young people and women in political processes, and the construction of community centres that foster social cohesion. Women, young people, human rights activists, civil society organisations, Iraqi displaced communities, local authorities: these will be the protagonists of an articulated work, which will focus on 5 main axes of work, coordinated by the activists of the Iraqi Social Forum and the newly created Kurdistan Social Forum, who intend to work in close connection over the next 3 years.

Through workshops, study groups, campaigns and advocacy work, the engagement of activists and young people will focus on 5 points:

1 - Social justice and employment

The legal framework of Western and some Arab countries will be studied to understand how to influence the development of labour policies, for social and economic protection, with the aim of implementing the new Iraqi Labour Code. In parallel, the draft laws on freedom of association discussed in parliament will be monitored, and amendments will be proposed where necessary. Possible procedures to grant protection to human rights defendersə will also be explored.

2 - Protection of internally displaced persons and minorities

The main challenges faced by local organisations in improving the living conditions of IDPs in the governorates of Kurdistan where they are most present will be studied and identified. Advocacy strategies will be promoted with various institutional actors to promote the social integration of the displaced communities, to find adequate responses to the traumas they have suffered as a result of the conflict, and to facilitate their return to the liberated areas. In parallel, their cultural heritage will be valorised through public events and publications.

3 - Promoting tolerance and democracy in the media

Against incitement to hatred, sectarianism and violence, specific awareness-raising campaigns will be launched, especially targeting the media sector. Social networks will be monitored, and actions will be carried out to build a network of sensitive TV channels and journalists, with the aim of promoting a journalism of Peace, which acts as a carrier of messages of tolerance and social cohesion.

4 - Water Rights and the Protection of Mesopotamia's Rivers

Specific awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of environmental protection and respect will be dedicated to the young people of the communities living along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A monthly newsletter will be produced on the topics of water, recycling and pollution. Activistsə will study current environmental legislation and produce a report highlighting possible legislative weaknesses and proposing solutions. Civil society organisations, in cooperation with local authorities, will conduct workshops to strengthen the public debate on environmental protection.

5 - Women's participation in civil society and policy-making processes

Activists will attempt to identify the main obstacles preventing women from taking leadership roles in civil society organisations and political parties and propose strategies to overcome them. Awareness-raising campaigns will be developed and promoted on social media that spread examples of women leaders in Iraqi national and international history. During general elections, campaigns will be held to promote free and independent voting. While strategies for the protection of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) will be explored, activist advocacy work will focus on government and local authorities to implement the National Plan on UN Resolution 1325, which encourages women's participation in political and peacebuilding processes.

Another goal, to be achieved within the first year of the project's work, is the opening of a Cultural Centre in Nassiriya, Iraq. This is where all activist coordination activities will take place, as well as the organisation of annual youth camps, an annual cultural festival dedicated to the artistic heritage of Iraqi minorities, and numerous workshops and activities in which both civil society organisations and local authorities will be involved, raising awareness on respect for human, environmental and cultural rights, with a special focus on Iraqi UNESCO heritage sites, such as the Mesopotamian Marshes.

Finally, the programme aims to build several Social Cohesion Committees in four governorates of the country over a period of two years. Coordinated by civil society with the cooperation of local authorities and tribal and religious leaders, the Committees will carry out social cohesion work, mediate possible inter-community tensions, and carry out the objectives that activists will identify during their work in workshops and in the Nassiria Cultural Centre. The aim is therefore to create interconnected realities, and to support their work and engagement on the issues that young people and civil society have identified as central to building an Iraq free of violence and extremism.

Rome, Berlin, Bologna, Seville and Ghent: these are the cities involved in our new project of integration through music, on the sound routes. 'The sound routes' project, which started at the end of 2016, is based on the desire to have a say on the European situation around the so-called 'refugee crisis', starting with an analysis of the conflicting feelings that have generated a widespread feeling of insecurity and intolerance on the one hand, and an active solidarity movement on the other.

We believe in freedom of movement, as well as in the fact that migrants, refugees, asylum seekers are first and foremost people with rights, often denied. And that they come to Europe with a rich and diverse set of skills.

Among them, many are artistsə or musiciansə. We got to know them and would like to get to know others, trying to foster not only their integration, but also and above all a confrontation with music and culture enthusiasts in our territories, building equal and listening-centred relationships.

This gave rise to the idea of creating a partnership with realities similar to our own, which we hope will make possible a real interaction of social actors, be they European artists, audiences attentive to musical novelties and experimentation, migrants and refugees living in Europe for some time or who have just arrived, and civil society organisations working in the field of music and reception.

The project will take place in Rome with Un Ponte Per, in Bologna with the popular music school 'Ivan Illich, Bologna in music', in Seville with the association Marmaduke, in Berlin with Werkstatt del Kulturen and in Ghent, Belgium, with Vzw De Vergunning.

Three activities are planned:

- House Concerts: an experimental form, but already known in Italy, of organising acoustic concerts by musicians of different levels - in this case migrants and refugees - in private homes. A system that valorises an alternative use of everyday space and the potential of informality in integration.

- Jam sessions: designed as further moments of exchange on the musical terrain and interaction between migrant and local artistsə, but in more formal venues open to a more classical audience.

- Musical co-production: the creation of an ad hoc musical group with two launch events. In Bologna, as part of the Bologna Jazz festival, and in Berlin.

This will be accompanied by the creation of a web platform that will function both as the project website and as a space for promoting the musical productions of local and migrant artistsə involved.

A documentary will then be made that will narrate this journey, with the aim of recording the cultural and emotional exchange that takes place through music, focusing on the stories of those who have arrived in Europe.

Finally, a guide will explain how to hold and organise house concerts, how to evaluate the results, and the possibility of counting this unprecedented form of cultural exchange and appreciation and sharing of differences as best practice.

As the Save the Tigris campaign launched five years ago testifies, the role of civil society is crucial in determining processes of historical significance, and regional alliances between Iraqis, Syrians, Turks and Kurds are not only possible, but strategically useful.

In recent years, the advocacy capacity of activist ə irachenə has grown and the population itself shows much interest in receiving support for organising rights and peacebuilding campaigns.

Against this backdrop, Un Ponte Per has developed a regional strategy that runs on several parallel tracks: providing humanitarian support to refugees and displaced persons while simultaneously seeking to hand these activities over to the management of local civil society, a key player in the construction of new practices on a small scale that can then be replicated.

On this premise, the three-year programme 'Paths of Coexistence in Mesopotamia', with the support of the Fondation Assistance Internationale (FAI), was born. It is developed along three axes: challenging the divisions that Daesh has exasperated between communities through social cohesion campaigns; involving the population in the protection of Mesopotamia's cultural and environmental heritage; peace building and non-violent conflict transformation.

The aim is to overcome Daesh-induced fundamentalism by building a path of trust between the communities involved and developing their sense of belonging to a common cultural and environmental heritage, fostering participatory land management and supporting coexistence practices and pacts.

To this end, actions and campaigns for social cohesion, coexistence and peace will be implemented in 8 Iraqi, 1 Syrian and 1 Turkish city along the course of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and Social Coexistence Pacts will be signed.

In order to foster the exchange of good practices and overcome the rifts caused by war and fundamentalism, a 'We love (city name)' city coordination will be activated by civil society in each of these cities, followed by a 'We love Iraq' forum at the national Iraqi level and a 'We love Mesopotamia' forum at the regional level.

It is also planned to train more than 1,000 social workers over three years, at least one third of whom are young people under 30 and at least one third are women, through training programmes that will focus on methodologies, working tools for social cohesion and regional meetings aimed at exchanging good practices and mutual knowledge.

Through the Saves the Tigris campaign, a common identity and sense of belonging to the cultural and environmental heritage of Mesopotamia will be strengthened among Iraqis, Syrians and Turks by implementing direct actions to safeguard the Tigris ecosystem.

In addition, a Regional Forum on the Right to Water in Iraq will be set up involving at least 500 participants from the region, and at least 3 working groups in Iraq and 1 in Turkey will be activated in order to ensure the protection and accessibility of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the relevant areas, reformulating the management plans of the sites in this regard to enable the participation of the population in their management and protection.

Civilian Peace Interventions will be implemented with the aim of fostering coexistence between local communities and Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, and between local communities and IDPs in Iraq, with a strong focus on facilitating the return of all IDP communities to their home towns after liberation from Daesh.

To intervene in support of local associations, international Civil Peace Corps will be trained and sent on 1-year missions to Beirut and Amman, while international volunteers will be sent for shorter periods to Iraq, and Local Peace Teams will be formed in at least 4 towns in the governorate of Nineveh, in order to strengthen local civil society and help overcome prejudices by promoting coexistence.

This peacebuilding project aims to involve at least 300 operatorsə and 10,000 civil society activistsə in 10 cities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey; about 3,000 people directly reached by Save the Tigris campaign actions; at least 50,000 people who have signed 'We Love (...)' charters; and at least 30,000 people reached by awareness-raising campaigns promoted by civil peace corps and groups.

The impact of this experimental peace-building action will be evaluated and the results promoted through international advocacy campaigns to enable large-scale replication.

Following the offensive launched in October 2016 to liberate Mosul, Iraq, thousands of people crossed the border into Syria, seeking shelter in the Al Hol refugee camp built in the north of the country. 90,000 people according to UNHCR estimates.

An emergency within an emergency, which has been going on for several months, and which we have been facing in cooperation with the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), with whom we have been working for some time now in north-eastern Syria.

Guaranteeing fleeing displaced persons immediate medical assistance: this is the aim of the programme launched at the end of 2016, thanks to the support of UNHCR, and still ongoing, with the contribution of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Action Humanitaire France).

We are intervening on a daily basis at the Iraq-Syria border, at the Rajm Slebi checkpoint, with an ambulance providing assistance to incoming Iraqi families fleeing Mosul and displaced Syrian people from the Deir er Zor area, transporting them to nearby hospitals or to the Al Hol camp, 30 kilometres away.

It is a situation of utmost emergency at the border, where the lack of facilities makes it incredibly difficult to intervene: that is why the work of the KRC staff with whom we collaborate is particularly strenuous but absolutely necessary.

At the same time, we are strengthening the health and first aid services already existing in the area, with a special focus on women, trauma victims and people with disabilities. Together with the KRC, we have selected and trained the medical and health personnel who will work both at the border and at the primary health centre in Al Hol camp. A total of 63 people, including doctors, paediatricians, gynaecologists, midwives, paramedics, psycho-social workers, ambulance drivers. Thanks to their support, we can guarantee health care and logistical support to the mobile first aid teams already operating along the border. Within the Al Hol camp, daily medical assistance is also guaranteed, 24 hours a day, for a total of more than 400 visits per day; psycho-social support with special attention to women, distribution of medicines for patients in need, ambulance transport to the nearby hospital in Hassakeh when necessary.

There are also special services for people with disabilities and those who have suffered trauma, thanks to the specific training of the staff involved, who are also ready to intervene in cases of gender-based violence.

"Ibtisam" started on 1 December 2016 and will continue for the next 10 months, during which we will renovate two schools in the districts of Irbid and Amman. After the intervention and bringing them up to standard, the schools will be able to accommodate almost 3,000 Syrianə and Jordanianə children.

In parallel, 20 social workers and health workers, together with 106 teachers, will participate in a training course on child protection, protection, trauma care.

Ensuring continuity in the schooling of those who have had to flee the war, and psycho-social support to overcome together the traumas left by the conflict: these are the objectives of the project, in line with the work we also do every day in Iraq and Syria as part of the Child Protection Programme in conflict zones.

Our commitment to the people affected by the conflict in the Kurdish-majority region of Syria continues. On the morning of 1 November, we delivered a shipment of paediatric medicines for 30,000 people, which will be distributed to the Kurdish Red Crescent clinics we work with.

On 1 November, we again crossed the bridge separating Iraqi Kurdistan from the Kurdish-majority region of Syria, Rojava. The aim was to deliver a new humanitarian cargo, this time consisting of medicines - mostly paediatric - for 30,000 people, which will be distributed to the Kurdish Red Crescent clinics we have been supporting for some time, and with whom we will be working for the next 7 months as part of a larger support programme.

After sending three humanitarian shipments during 2015 and one in September 2016, this distribution of medicines was the first one carried out this year as part of a project financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), and which we are implementing with the support of the Otto per Mille Office of the Waldensian Board and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

The distributions will continue in 2017, and in total, aid will be delivered to 50,000 people and access to care guaranteed for 75,000 displaced persons.

Over the next seven months, internally displaced persons, Syrian and Iraqi refugees will be able to rely on the psycho-social support services we will provide in the Red Crescent Centres, where we will hold training sessions on resilience techniques and psycho-social support attended by 200 Red Crescent workers.

The project came to life when, after several missions to Lebanon, it emerged from our Lebanese partners - Beit Atfal Assomoud and Permenent Peace Movement - that there was a need to revitalise non-formal education in order to boost social cohesion in the country.

That is why we have selected four National Civil Service volunteers, two girls and two boys, who will be working in Lebanon from November 2016 until September 2017, to follow non-formal educational paths dedicated to Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian childrenə.

In Lebanon, where communities belonging to 18 different religious denominations coexist with political parties with often diametrically opposed views, and where one in four people are refugees from Syria, this is not a matter of course. Especially in light of Lebanon's complex education system.

In the Palestinian camps of Shatila and Bourj el-Barajenh, operatorsə will teach English in kindergartens and afternoon remedial classes. They will be engaged in supporting the recreational activities that animate the two centres where Assomoud has been working for 40 years and during the year they will also organise meetings and exchanges with the families of the minors involved in the training activities.

With the Permanent Peace Movement they will participate and organise trainings involving young Syriansə and Lebanese in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. In this case, the complex issue that young people will have to deal with will be mitigating existing tensions between the Syrian community and the host community, supporting the trainers of the partner association.

The project foresees times when the volunteers will be able to take turns in the activities in order to keep in mind the work carried out by the others, but together, already in the first months, they will carry out field research monitored by the Faculty of Peace Sciences in Pisa. Thanks to a series of interviews with representative figures from the educational field, they will investigate the nature and composition of education in Lebanon, the creative aspects and future challenges of non-formal education.

The military offensive launched on 17 October against Daesh in the city of Mosul, Iraq, and currently underway may involve and displace 1.5 million civilians.

Giving an immediate response to this new humanitarian crisis that is long overdue: this is the objective with which we have developed the emergency programme 'Darna' (Our Home) in advance, thanks to the support of the Otto per Mille Office of the Tavola Valdese and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

For months now, the international coalition against Daesh had been gaining positions, gradually approaching the group's stronghold cities in Iraq. Important cities such as Falluja had been recaptured, and there are already over 250,000 displaced people registered by the United Nations, whose humanitarian response plan is only 58% covered.

The new IDPs will add to the more than 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) caused by the Daesh offensive in the summer of 2014, who are still living in camps in northern Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (KRG), where we operate with our 3 offices in Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymayniyah.

This is why we have prepared a series of short- and medium-term actions to respond to the emergency. From today and for the next eight months we plan to reach 30,000 people with hygiene kits and field kitchens: materials defined as 'life-saving' that in the immediacy of a crisis are necessary to prevent epidemics by enabling people to prepare their own food.

This will be complemented by the work of a Mobile Health Unit that will provide care, guidance and psychological support with special attention to women and children. In a second phase, the medical staff on duty at the clinics we run in KRG as part of other projects will be sent to the Mobile Unit on a weekly basis, to make home check-ups on the basis of the cases that will be reported to us by the other organisations working in the field. Our staff, already working in the Erbil and Dohuk areas to assist displaced Iraqi and Syrian refugee families, will also try to provide support to the newly displaced people fleeing Mosul.

The orientation, information and psychosocial support projects that have already been in operation for 2 years will be readjusted to meet the new needs.

Already since 2009, we have been working in the areas of the Nineveh Plain that have fallen under the control of Daesh, with educational, school and minority protection projects, and have continued to accompany the local population when they have had to seek refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the advance of Daesh, we have remained continuously active with humanitarian assistance projects and longer-term programmes, focusing particularly on youth, inter-community dialogue, social cohesion and peacebuilding. Actions needed to go beyond the emergency, and to prepare the ground for the return of local populations to areas that will gradually be liberated from the Daesh presence.

Our commitment to the people affected by the conflict in the Kurdish-majority region of Syria continues. Distribution of medicines and health kits, psycho-social support and resilience at the centre of the next seven months of work.

On the morning of 28 September 2016, we again crossed the border into Iraq and entered Syria to accompany a load of humanitarian aid destined for the population under siege: general medicines, anti-tumour drugs that cannot be found in the country and hygiene kits for people housed in refugee camps. The shipment will be delivered by the Kurdish Red Crescent. The distributions will provide assistance to more than 20,000 people living in the Rojava region.

This is the first in a cycle of distributions that we will carry out between 2016 and 2017 as part of a project financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), and which we will implement with the support of the Waldensian Board's Otto per Mille Office and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

In total, aid will be distributed for 50,000 displaced people and access to care guaranteed for 75,000.

But in Rojava we will be engaged in a broader project. Over the next seven months, internally displaced persons, Syrian and Iraqi refugees will also be able to rely on the psycho-social support services that we will provide in the KRC Centres, where we will conduct training in resilience techniques and psycho-social support for 200 Red Crescent workers.

2015 had seen us involved in the distribution of 2 humanitarian shipments to Rojava and a third shipment of tents and winter equipment. Today we are back on that 'bridge', attempting to break the Syrian siege across a small border point to Iraqi Kurdistan, where we have been working for over 25 years. Today, what we learnt there we also want to take to Rojava.

A new support and social development programme aimed at young Syrian refugees in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as those from host communities, is launched.

It will last 18 months and run in three countries with the aim of involving a total of 23,500 children to improve their living conditions: it is 'Fursa. Resilient Communities', our new programme for development and social cohesion in Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon.

Promoting greater autonomy for young people from Syrian refugee communities in these three countries through social and economic inclusion processes, as well as for young people from host communities in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey: this is the principle behind the intervention, supported by the European Community and implemented in cooperation with our partners COSV (Coordination of Organisations for Voluntary Service) and SFCG (Search for Common Ground).

Because in order to increase opportunities for labour market access and social inclusion for young people who have been forced to flee the war in Syria and find refuge elsewhere, it is also necessary to build empathy and trust between them and the young people of the communities that have taken them in.

In Iraq, the intervention will be concentrated in the areas of Dohuk and Suleimania, and in the refugee camps of Domiz and Gawilan, where a large part of the Syrian refugee community in northern Iraq resides. The goal is to reach 15,000 young people, thanks to the network of youth centres built through our 'Youth Spring Across Ethnicities' project.

In Turkey, we will operate in the areas of Kilis, Hatay and Gaziantep, with the aim of reaching at least 5,000 young people.

In Lebanon, however, the work will target 10 refugee communities in the Akkar area, totalling 3,500 people.

The project activities will be structured around 3 thematic areas: economic support, social stability and psychological support, aimed at young Syrianə refugees, young Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqiə, and among them in particular those who are most at risk of militia recruitment, child exploitation and early marriage, and who are most likely to be excluded from both the education system and the world of work.

Together with our local and international partners, we will propose a range of activities and services that, through trauma healing and resilience building processes, will encourage young refugees, displaced persons and host communities to work together to improve their economic and living conditions.

Individual, vocational, capacity-building training and round-table discussions will facilitate dialogue between young people, who will then be assisted in the implementation of micro economic development projects developed in a participatory manner.