World Vision makes preparations to serve 600 children through Child Friendly Spaces in Iraq

Friday, May 1, 2015

“We are all looking forward on the children’s activities to start soon,” says 30-year-old mother, Seiton Sulayman, with a grin. All of the women cooking with her in Bersive 1 Camp momentarily stopped to express their excitement. A few steps from where they were cooking and where their playing children workers assemble a four-room Child Friendly Space made possible by World Vision, through the assistance of the Germany Relief Coalition Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH).


The space, approximately 800 square metres, will also equipped with the teachers’ office, a shaded area for outside activities, a kitchen and toilets. According to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist, Michael Wicker of World Vision, the Child Friendly Space activities are planned to take place two shifts, serving at least 150 children per shift. Twelve teachers have been hired and are currently receiving training.

Hadi, 35, was among the internally-displaced people (IDP) hired to work on the construction of the installations. His two young children will eventually be participating in the activities, making project important for his family on a number of levels. “People have been asking us when will the school open. This will be a big help for the children who have nothing to do in the camp. They can use their time learning,” he says. 

World Vision is building two Child Friendly Spacess in Bersive 1 and 2 camps located outside of Zakho town, in the Duhok Governorate of northern Iraq. World Vision’s Operations Manager in the Kurdish Region of Iraq, Fadli Usman was delighted by the quick progress and good quality of the construction work and planss to extend the model to other camps as funding allows. “I am as excited as the mothers on this project,” he says. 



World Vision’s “Let Us Learn” Project, an emergency education and protection initiative for the displaced children in the camps and informal settlments in Duhok Governorate together with the Public Aid Organization (PAP), aims to assist in the continued learning, improve psychosocial well-being and increased resilience of children in both settings. 

The latest International Organization for Migration Report states that an estimated 972,000 of the 2.7 million internally-displaced persons (IDPs) are children up to age of 14 years in Iraq Kurdistan alone. It further states that the education needs of these children are the most under-addressed. World Vision’s Child Friendly Spaces represent an opportunity to support the healing of children and nurture their capability to overcome the shock of the displacement by helping them build stable and supportive relations with their peers, within their families and within the community at large.