Tel Kaif is a town located in north of Iraq, 8 miles north east of Mosul. Most people left Tel Kaif after ISIS seized control of the town in 2014 but they started to gradually return to their homes after the town was liberated in 2017. Mercy Hands works in Tel Kaif since 2017 to help the locals rebuild their town.
Apart from the regular programs, our team in Tel Kaif collaborated with Lawyers for Women Center to organize a GBV (Gender Based Violence) awareness session for GBV survivors in Tel Kaif. This event comes as part of Mercy Hands contribution to the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. The event took place at Mercy Hands office in Tel Kaif on Wednesday, November 25.
A group of 30 GBV survivors listened to our team teaching them about the following:
- Definition of GBV; the difference between sex and gender and between violence in general and GBV;
- Violence and its types; types of GBV; prevalence of GBV in Iraq;
- Causes of GBV, highlighting the misuse of power starting from family, society to the state;
- The increasing prevalence of violence via social media;
- Governmental and non-governmental resources available for protection of GBV victims;
- Legal and psychosocial services provided to GBV victims by Mercy Hands and Lawyers for Women Center;
GBV survivors engaged in an active discussion with Mercy Hands team, especially on options to prevent GBV and to help GBV survivors
At the end of the event Mercy Hands team distributed orange ribbons to the attending GBV survivors. The ribbons were designed in the shape of No in Arabic (لا), so that it will show to everyone that we say no more violence. The GBV survivors loved that idea of the ribbons and pinned them on their clothes.
