How Did Dutch Football Kits End Up in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan?
- Pippa Henderson Slater
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
The remarkable journey of kits that crossed continents to empower girls in displacement camps.
When Mercy Hands and Mercy Path staff visited Bajed Kandala IDP camp, in March this year, they had a request: new football kits and boots for their girls football team.
Bajed Kandala camp is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp in Duhok, Kurdistan region of Iraq – it sits just inside Iraq's borders with Türkiye and Syria.
Most families here are Yezidi and originally from the Sinjar region, driven out of their homes and villages by ISIS’ genocide against Yezidis in August 2014. A combination of ongoing security issues and instability, infrastructure destruction and the absence of public services and economic opportunity prevents families from returning and so, many have lived in the camp for over 12 years.
Inside the camp, opportunities for families are limited and health and public services are stretched. But people like Khalid and his team are working to ensure people receive support, and most crucially, that youth here grow up empowered and with skills like teamwork, discipline, and resilience.
Khalid works for Imprint of Hope, an IDP led organisation which, among many things, runs a girls’ football team.
After Mercy Hands and Mercy Path team received their request for new kits and boots in March, we got into contact with Kits for the World.
Kits for the World is a Dutch organisation that was founded in 2010, with the goal of recycling and repurposing donated football kits and distributing them to children and adults in some of the world’s poorest countries.
When we asked them if they would help us get kits to the girls in Duhok, they were eager to help. And so, Margreet, Mercy Path’s Program Manager, brought the kits and boots all the way from Kits for the World’s warehouse in Kampen to Baghdad, on her journey back to Iraq from the Netherlands, where she had been back home, visiting family.
The kits then travelled by taxi and car from Baghdad all the way to Duhok where Mercy Hands team member Mohammed delivered them to the girls team.
At Mercy Hands and Mercy Path, we believe that empowering women and girls through sports enables them to build self-confidence, improves health and teaches valuable life skills.
Now, with new kits and boots for the whole team (and the coaches!) Imprint of Hope can continue to bring people together through football, and the girls at Bajed Kandala can keep building their confidence through playing the game they love.
Keep it up, girls!
With special thanks to Mercy Path for Women's Affairs, Kits for the World and Imprint of Hope.