Nadia Murad, top aid organizations launch housing, community projects for Yezidi survivors

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) along with Yezidi Nobel laureate Nadia Murad and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched housing and community support for Yezidi survivors of terrorism.

The projects, dubbed “New Kocho” will build houses for the survivors of the Yezidi genocide at the hands of the so-called Islamic State, which enslaved and killed thousands of members of the ethno-religious group in 2014.

Kocho is a southern village of Sinjar in the northern Nineveh plain, where during the Islamic State attack on the town in August 2014, Murad lost her mother along with six of her brothers. Among the 550,000 Yazidis who lived in Shingal before the Islamic State attack, about 100,000 fled the country, while others sought refuge in the Kurdistan Region.

The planned houses will be located near the old Yezidi-majority town of Sinjar (Shingal), according to a statement from Murad’s nonprofit organization, Nadia’s Initiative. 

The projects also aim to provide community support to Yezidi survivors through memorialization efforts, including the building of memorials and protection of cemeteries where victims of the genocide are buried.

IOM and USAID both support the projects, Nadia’s Initiative added.

“This project is a critical step toward enabling the dignified return of displaced Kocho community members and facilitating the rebuilding of a dignified life,” Murad said.

Following the atrocities committed by Islamic State against the Yezidis, Nadia became a formidable voice in bringing world attention to the genocide. Since then, she has been actively engaged, both internationally and locally, to help support the survivors of the crimes.

“My community of Kocho has experienced some of the worst atrocities known to mankind. Those who survived the genocide have been waiting almost seven years to return home,” Murad said.

Read More: Some Yezidi survivors still fear returning home to Sinjar

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly