Investing in the children of Iraqi Kurdistan
ACN supported the building of a new floor for the Kindergarten in Enishke, allowing it to expand its services to receive more children from the families in the surrounding villages, including Kurds and Yazidis, helping to sow the seeds of peace and fraternity for future generations.
Enishke village is located within the Diocese of Dohuk, in a mountainous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, northern Iraq.
Christian, Kurdish and Yazidi families live in the many settlements around Enishke, struggling to survive in a climate of economic hardship, political instability and lingering insecurity.
The lack of resources and of investment from both the regional or federal governments meant that when the local parish priest, Fr Samir Yousif, visited local communities, he often found young children deprived of opportunities and a healthy upbringing. “When I was visiting the families in the past, I would find the children locked up in their house,” he explained to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
In 2013, Fr Samir started a small kindergarten in Enishke which served up to 16 children. What the Chaldean priest did not know at the time was that the whole situation in the region was about to change, with the terrorist organisation ISIS taking control of much of the nearby territory in August 2014, sending a wave of Christian, Yezidi and moderate Muslim refugees into Iraqi Kurdistan.
After the expulsion of ISIS, he realised that much more needed to be done and made plans to build a new floor for the kindergarten, allowing it to expand its services. “Our goal is to create an educated, aware, and open generation and also to create peaceful coexistence among Christian, Kurdish and Yazidi children,” said Fr Samir. ACN is one of the organisations which has supported this project as part of its overarching strategy to help the Christians in Iraq to overcome the tragedies resulting from the invasion of ISIS and to enable them to continue to live in their homelands.
In July, the Chaldean Catholic Bishop of Dohuk travelled to Enishke to inaugurate the completed project, which can now take up to 100 children, directly benefitting around 90 families. During the event, Bishop Azad Shaba expressed hope that the ACN-sponsored project might serve the whole of Iraqi society and not only Christian families. “We commend the opening of this kindergarten, through the efforts of the priest and teachers in this town, and we encourage it to be open to all our Muslim brothers in the region because it translates the teachings of Christ. Our goal is to help people in need, and by this we do not mean just raising buildings, but to raise up people who will have a role in constructing a future Christian society,” he said.
Besides the families which will be able to send their children to the kindergarten, the project has also created several jobs for local people, benefitting their families as well. Fr Samir told ACN that since it opened, dozens of children have already graduated from the kindergarten, moving on to other schools, where they have been commended for their academic abilities.
“With the support of our bishop, we always focus on giving value to every stage of a person’s life, but childhood and children are the most important, as we have a saying that ‘in order to have a future, it is not enough to have children only’ and for this we must raise and educate, and the best time for this is childhood, since we have another saying that ‘engraving on childhood is like engraving on stone’.”
The new floor of the kindergarten in Enishke village was inaugurated in July 2024 and includes three classrooms, a large and well-equipped area for playing, a kitchen and sanitary facilities. “It is well-built and secure, to be safe for our children. We are very grateful to ACN and to all donors, and God bless you,” said Fr Samir.
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