Promoting dialogue between civil society, local authorities and institutions in Iraq and Italy. Offer social services and sharing spaces to young Iraqis, especially those belonging to the Christian, Ezid, Kakai, Shabak, Turkmen minorities. To build youth centres together, in which the peculiarities of their communities are considered an asset for Iraqi society, once a mosaic of civilisations, cultures, religions.
These are the objectives of the project Youth Spring Across Ethnicities: a new social alliance to empower youth of minorities in North Iraq and KRG, launched in 2014, supported by the European Union, CEI, Tavola Valdese - Ufficio Otto per Mille and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, and carried out in partnership with ARCI Toscana.
When the project was conceived Daesh had not yet occupied Mosul, nor brought destruction to the Nineveh Plain. The idea was to help strengthen gender equality and youth integration policies, and was to take place in five locations: Mosul, Bashiqa, Qaraqosh, Sinjar and Khabat. Places on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and northern Iraq, disputed between the respective governments, the subject of continuous tensions. Areas that, in the summer of 2014, ended up at the centre of the vortex of violence caused by Daesh.
For this reason, the project was rethought and moved.
The communities involved remained the same, but were forced to flee and find new homes, elsewhere. We moved with them, and today 'Youth Spring' has led to the opening of four youth centres in Erbil, Dohuk, Sulaimania and Zummar.
A great many activities are planned and already implemented: from theatre training to street art (with the 'Niente Paura' project) and comic strip courses with Claudio Calia, the Youth Centres have become a point of reference for young people, and a place where they can re-appropriate spaces, acting and using them according to their needs. In fact, the conception, planning and implementation of the project is taken care of by young people, in constant collaboration with local institutions.
These activities are complemented by training sessions in collaboration with local social workers and operatorsə. Topics include human rights, peacebuilding (history, theory and practice of the nonviolent approach to conflict resolution), peace education, the use of art as a tool for promoting peace. And again, promotion of activism: non-violent action, use of media and social networks, freedom of thought, speech and association. Finally, numerous youth and cultural exchanges with Italy are planned.
This work will continue for the next few years, with the aim of making the centres places of knowledge and exchange in which to promote a culture of tolerance and integration between the different Iraqi linguistic and religious groups.
