Arte TV Spotlights Yezidi Community with FYF Field Staff

European culture TV channel, Arte TV, recently spent time with FYF’s Country Director, Hewan Omer, to discuss the current state of the Yezidi community in Iraq nearly a decade after the genocide. Hewan took Arte TV’s crew to the Yezidi homeland, Sinjar, to illustrate the lingering destruction and lack of investment in the region’s redevelopment. The crew also visited the IDP camps in Duhok, where nearly half the Yezidi population still reside in makeshift tents, and lack basic services, such as healthcare, education, and livelihood opportunities.

FYF’s team showed Arte TV’s crew the FYF Enterprise and Training Center, where Yezidi women are empowered with livelihood skills and job opportunities. Staff emphasized the importance of investing in women’s economic empowerment, in particular vulnerable Yezidi women who suffer from compounding vulnerabilities, including gender discrimination in the workforce and insecurities related to protracted displacement and ethno-religious discrimination. Their trip ended with a visit to the Yezidi holy site, Lalish, where the community continues to practice their religion in hopes for a better, peaceful future.