Projekte

Iraqi-Kurdistan playbus programme needs your urgent support

For the past two and a half years, Wadi social workers have been visiting remote villages in Iraqi-Kurdistan in buses that have been transformed into mobile playgrounds. In their trips to the villages, children like Gulala and Hiwa eagerly await their arrival. These Wadi buses are equipped with games and basic playground facilities and bring a lot of joy to the lives of these village children, whose childhoods are often too short, and where playgrounds and toys are rare.

But this successful project is now in danger of closing down due to lack of funding. One of the major donors has pulled out due to financial shortage, and money is desperately needed for the maintenance of the buses, as well as toys and equipment, and the salaries of the social workers and drivers.

Please help. We need your donations to help keep the Playbuses rolling.

Please read more about the experience of Gulala and Hiwa in the playbus programme.

Gulala looks closely at the hands of the social worker who demonstrates how to knot a lace. The children are given beads and plastic pearls, ribbons and laces to make bracelets. It is now Gulala’s turn: she tinkers a friendship bracelet with yellow and golden beads, because Gulala means sunflower. Her friend Tara takes blue plastic pearls for hers, because Tara means star.

Gulala is six years old. She was born shortly after her village was liberated from the rule of Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist militia that controlled the region of Iraqi-Kurdistan near the Iranian border. The group set up a regime of terror in the villages, inspired by the Taliban, and left behind a trail of blood when forced out of the region in 2004. When they left, they gathered and publicly executed groups of young men from the villages. This was before Gulala was born, but her older brother, Hiwa, was two.

Hiwa means hope. Hiwa is playing football with his friends a few metres away. The social workers of the Playbus Programme brought the ball together with other toys and books, and the beads and pearls for Gulala’s and Tara’s bracelets. The Playbus is a bus that was transformed into a mobile playground and is equipped with toys and books. The Playbuses visit the children in these remote villages, spending each day at a different village. “Our message is simple”, explains Ashdi, a social worker with the Playbus Programme, ““You are important to us”. By the way,” he adds, “Ashdi means peace.” He laughs and calls foul in the football game.

Under Saddam Hussein the Iraqi army attacked the population of this region with chemical weapons. After the gas-attack, bulldozers razed many of the villages. Once the Iraqi military withdrew, the Islamist militias, back by Iran, took over. Children like Gulala, Tara and Hiwa are the hope for their region to recover from the decades of violence and war and build a better future for their country. The Playbus Programme is for children like them.

The Playbus programme has been running for the last two and a half years. At first there was only a single Playbus but due to the high demand for its services, a second one soon followed. There are no playgrounds in the villages and many children do not go to kindergarten. Children are often required to help their families in their struggle to survive so their childhood is short, and there are scant resources for toys. The Playbus provides an essential service and makes a vital contribution to the children’s well-being, providing them with the opportunity to play, in a region that has known decades of violence and terror.

Despite the marked success of the programme over the last two and a half years, it is in danger of closure due to lack of funding. The Playbuses require running costs: fuel and repair for the buses, toys and materials for the children, salaries for the workers. Institutional donors, due to their narrow field of support, do not cover these expenses.

We ask you to kindly and urgently make a donation to the Playbuses Programme in order that it can continue to bring joy to the lives of the children in this region.

Please donate to:

WADI Donation account
Account: 612 305 602
Bank No.: Postbank Frankfurt
Code: 500 100 60
IBAN: DE43500100600612305602
BIC: PBNKDEFF

www.wadinet.de

 

---

WADI e.V. | tel.: (+49) 069-57002440 | fax (+49) 069-57002444
http://www.wadinet.de | e-mail: