Kurdish pop artist performs for departing Dutch soldiers

Kurdish-Dutch pop artist Dashni Morad on Friday performed for a group of soon-to-be departing Dutch soldiers who will be replaced by another batch of troops that will continue to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdish-Dutch pop artist Dashni Morad on Friday performed for a group of soon-to-be departing Dutch soldiers who will be replaced by another batch of troops that will continue to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The Dutch Army is part of the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTCC) that is made up of instructors from nine countries: Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Sweden.

While the Dutch initially trained Peshmerga soldiers that were fighting the Islamic State (IS) through the KTCC mission, the mission is now slightly changing. The Dutch Army now trains Kurdish instructors so that they can take over the training mission in the future.

The music artist has also set up her own charity organization called Green Kids which provides support to children affected by poverty and war.

She told Kurdistan 24 that Green Kids has donated over 200,000 books to underprivileged schools across the Kurdistan Region, established two mini-libraries at refugee camps, and collected money and other aid for refugees.

After her performance singing both Dutch and Kurdish songs in the Dutch corner at Camp Stephan, she received a  USD 1,000 donation from Lieutenant Colonel Jos Brouns, who leads the Dutch mission in the Kurdistan Region.

The commander underlined that stabilization after the defeat of IS is not only done by the military, but also by civil society organizations such as Green Kids.

Morad said she was honored by the Dutch military’s appreciation for her organization’s efforts and the donation toward its cause.

“This is a great step for Green Kids as we are getting more and more recognition from the international community.”

The Kurdish artist said Green Kids’ mission is to educate children on humanity’s “symbiotic relationship with the environment.”

“Although we promote learning in the classroom and at home, we believe that the best way to educate children about the environment is to take them out into the great outdoors, so they can see for themselves how our global ecological system works,” Morad stated.

“This is because, at Green Kids, we believe that enjoying the environment goes hand-in-hand with preserving it.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany