BCF donates food to Sinjar residents

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) distributed 500 food parcels to low-income residents of Sinjar.

Shero Smoo, head of the Sinjar office of the BCF, told Kurdistan 24 that the distribution was in celebration of the Festival of Fasting (Cejna rojîyê), also known as the Fast of Yezidis.

He also said that the organization gave holiday gifts to over 270 orphans in the district.

There are about one million Yezidis worldwide, with almost half of them living in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

The holiday occurs on different days of the year as it is calculated on the Yezidi calendar, which is nearly 7,000 years old. The holiday is also followed by three days of fasting.

The emergence of ISIS and its violent assault on Sinjar in 2014 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the religious community. Most fled to the Kurdistan Region, while others resettled in neighboring countries or Western states.

Others were not as lucky and remained stranded in the war zone, where they experienced atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the extremist group for years. Militants subjected women and girls to sexual slavery and human trafficking kidnapped children, forced religious conversions, and executed scores of men.

Over nine years since then, much of Shingal remains in rubble, and very few of its former residents have returned to their homes.