IRAQI KURDISTAN: February 2016 Newsletter

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CPT Iraqi Kurdistan Newsletter – February 2016

FEBRUARY
2016

Iraqi
Kurdistan

CPT 2016 trainees in Iraqi Kurdistan organised a
public action to
show solidarity with
unpaid government
workers in
Kurdistan. The
government has not
paid the employees
for last 5-6 months,
so the workers are
facing a very
difficult situation
now
.

The trainees team envisioned the event to be held
in Azadi Park in
Sulaimani, Iraqi
Kurdistan on Feb 19
th 2016. However,
authorities denied
approval for this
action.

CPT trainees decided to perform it on the CPT
office`s rooftop and
capture it on video
to share with you
all.


To
watch the movie,
click here:
public
action movie

Halfway
point of CPT
Training in Iraqi
Kurdistan

Every Thursday
evening and all day
Friday a group of 9
trainees and 4 CPT
trainers gather in the
CPT house to participate
in CPT training. We have
done 12 sessions so far
and are looking forward
to experiencing more.
Training is very
exciting and beneficial
for everyone involved,
as each of us brings our
own knowledge and
experience.

Two of the
sessions included
briefings on the Kurdistan
and Palestine teams. The
trainees talked about the
different activities the
teams on the ground handle
and also about the
challenges that they face
on a daily basis. The
training group also
participated in two role
plays that allowed them to
learn how to deal with
these challenges in real
life situations.
 

ALTERNATIVES
TO VIOLENCE PROJECT
CPT along with
STEP organisation (Seeking
to Equip People) delivered
three Alternatives to
Violence Project (AVP)
workshops in the last two
weeks of February. AVP
workshops teach the
participants tools on how
to transform violence and
unbalanced power dynamics
in their everyday lives.

We were happy to train
around 50 participants
with different
backgrounds. Some of them
were refugees from Syria,
some IDP`s (internally
displaced persons) from
other parts of Iraq and a
few were from Iraqi
Kurdish host community.

At the end of the three
day workshops,
participants expressed
their hopes of having more
of this type of training
in the future. One
participant, a Syrian
refugee, said that those
three days were the most
enjoyable and useful days
since she had arrived in
iraqi Kurdistan three
years ago.

Go in peace, not to pieces

Changing the
small things-Iraqi
Kurdistan CPT training

(…) The
moment arrived and
supper was hot. The
trainees began to enter
the CPT house-the eager,
excited, laughing new
CPT trainees.

This training is unique
to any I have attended
or facilitated in the
six years since I joined
CPT. There are ten
trainees: one from
Poland, one from
Colombia and eight from
Kurdistan-Iraq and
Syria. It is a
multi-faith group:
Christian, Muslim,
seeking and those that
have a deep spirituality
but who do not identify
with a specific
organised faith.

Most of the trainee’s
lives have been directly
impacted by the violence
in the region. We heard
several times on the
first day indications of
this. One person asked
permission to keep his
phone on with the tone
turned off. His father
was heading to the front
line and he needed to
aware of when that would
happen. Others spoke of
people they have lost
due to separation or
death due to the war
that is happening
throughout their
countries.
Our
first role play
where they simulated
walking alongside
farmers
in
Hebron who were
harvesting olives.
One of our
first spontaneous
activities was to attend
a vigil to remember and
grieve for the 58 people
including 25 Iraqi Kurds
who drowned in the
Aegean Sea last week.
These are the things we
had to process on our
second day of training.
This week we
began to work on the
module where they plan a
public action. They
agreed to a topic that
faces a small bit of the
oppression that is
happening in this
region. The trainees had
to think hard of ways to
get the message across
in a way that would not
endanger any of them.
They knew that arrest in
this country can bring
with it beatings and,
for some of them,
deportation back to a
war-torn country. Yet,
they also knew that it
is very important to
speak to the powers that
are causing the
oppression. The
consensus came down to a
simple message with a
subversive undertone.
This week they will
continue the planning to
bring about the action
next Friday.
One morning, as I ate
breakfast with Jahne who
is from Rojava (Syrian
Kurdistan) she said, “
The reason I want to be
a part of CPT is that
CPT works to change the
small things. I can not
change the war, or the
government in my country
but I can change the
small things. That is
what CPT does.”

Te read
the full version of
the article, click
here:
https://goinpeacenottopieces

 




Protest
against violating a
freedom of speech

28th of February, two
CPTers accepted a request
to accompany a group of sixteen
activists from Rania,
Hawler and Sulaimani

who were showing
solidarity to an officer
from Rania who is
currently in jail. The
officer was arrested by
the authorities for
showing his anger on a
public video on Facebook.

The
imprisoned officer,
Lieutenant Faramosh, is a
traffic police officer
from Rania.
In the last two weeks he
has been involved in a
strike with his fellow
employees asking the
government to pay their
salaries for the last 3
months.

Three
TV stations NRT, KNN and
REGA, reported about this
action. After the action
finished the activists
went to see Faramosh in
the prison to tell him
he is not alone
.

CPT learned that
Lieutenant Faramosh was
released from prison

a few days ago.

Our dear team
mate Mohammad just turned
“29” a few days ago. We
wanted to make this day
special for him, so
according to his wishes we
went bowling. Before that,
we went to our favourite
Syrian restaurant, where
we had a bunch of
delicious food and we got
a big piece of magnificent
cake. After eating such a
feast we were so full that
we could hardly move. We
still challenged ourselves
and went bowling anyway.
It was really fun and
Lukasz won the game.




A
NEW WASHING MACHINE
!!!!!
With
your help, we were able
to collect enough money
to buy a new washing
machine! We are very
grateful for the
donation. The new
washing machine helps us
to save time, energy and
water.

 

 
Connect with us to learn more about our work, and
ways how to
get involved
and partner
with us…

https://www.facebook.com/cpt.ik
https://cptikurdistan.blogspot.com

https://www.youtube.com/cptiraq
cptiraq@cpt.org

Currently,
our team needs a
new oven,as the
old one is not
very functional.
It is constantly
burning our food
and using extra
power.

A
new functional oven
costs $300 in Iraqi
Kurdistan.
Please, click on
this link to help us
buy a new oven.
Put “oven” in the
description.

We
need your support.


Thank you very
much!

 
Mission: Christian
Peacemaker Teams: Building
partnerships to transform
violence and oppression.

Vision: A
world of communities
that
together embrace the
diversity of the human
family and live justly and
peaceably with all
creation.

Values: Christian
Peacemaker Teams is
committed to work and
relationships that: Honor
and reflect the presence
of faith and
spirituality; Strengthen
grassroots
initiatives; Transform
structures of domination
and oppression; Embody
creative non-violence and
liberating love.

www.cpt.org

https://cptikurdistan.blogspot.com/

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