Haifa, a young woman from Mosul, was a university student when ISIS took over Mosul in summer 2014. Fearing for their lives, Haifa and her family fled, leaving everything behind. They suffered a difficult journey to safety in Kurdistan, before finding themselves on the street in Akre, a town in Duhok. They spent four months [...]
Fatima is originally from a village near Mosul but was forced to flee with her family from ISIS’s extreme brutality against the Yezidi minority community in August 2014. Along with thousands of others, Fatima and her family endured a long and arduous journey, first escaping to Mount Sinjar, and then to the Syrian border, before [...]
Bahe is a survivor of ISIS captivity, who was able to escape and rejoin her family at Mamilyan Camp in Akre. She began participating in SEED’s baking classes in February of 2016. She came to classes regularly but didn’t speak much with the other participants. Observing that she wasn’t fully participating SEED’s psychotherapist, offered to [...]
The SEED Foundation delivers comprehensive psychosocial services to those displaced by ISIS in Kurdistan, particularly survivors of violence. At the SEED Center we deliver high quality mental health services, recreational activities, livelihood training, and life skills education to support men, women, and children, to start to heal and recover and rebuild their lives. Come check [...]
Sherri Kraham Talabani: Kurdistan’s future lies in investing in women, youth ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—A stronger, more democratic, prosperous future for the Kurdistan Region lies with empowering the nation’s women and supporting them in leadership and decision-making roles, said Sherri Kraham Talabani, co-founder of SEED, in an interview with Rudaw. Read More...
SEED's first gala dinner event in Washington, DC, No Survivor Should Suffer Alone, on May 19th, was a great success! Over 200 guests included friends, philanthropists, corporate sponsors, and members of the foreign policy, think thank and media communities. Many thanks to all who supported the evening and especially our amazing Master of Ceremonies Elise [...]
Wars and terrorism are stressful. The traumatised have nowhere to turn WHEN Neda told her children that she might have to kill them, they assented. Such was their suffering after Islamic State kidnapped and enslaved them, along with thousands of other Yazidis, a religious minority, in northern Iraq in 2014. Read More...
After centuries of being virtually unknown in the West, we now all know of the plight of the Yezidi people. And what we know is not good. Yezidis are one of Iraq’s oldest religious groups. They have been marginalized and have suffered persecution for centuries, and have born the brunt of the cruel sectarian violence [...]
Today, SEED sent a team to Sharya Camp in Dohuk to provide support to two women and their children who escaped ISIS recently, after a year and a half in captivity. These women returned without their husbands and some of their children, who are still in captivity or were killed. Not knowing whether their [...]
In the wake of the ISIS atrocity in Brussels, it's time to reflect on the meaning of John Kerry's recent statement that the group has committed a genocide against Yazidis. It is certainly true that ISIS has done its best to wipe out members of the ancient monotheistic religion, killing thousands of men, enslaving women [...]