Help recovering their lives
Yazidies, unknown and forgotten
The Yazidis are a peaceful ethnic group that maintain a pre-Islamic and monotheistic religion, Yazidism. They are Kurds (they speak Kurmanji) who did not experience a process of Islamization and who preserved a religion as old as the Parsi or Zoroastrian. Its main population centers are located in the Sinjar and Shekhan districts, in northeastern and northern Iraq, respectively, both in the Nineveh governorate. There are also some significant Yazidi communities in Armenia, Georgia and Germany. In total they can add up to around 600,000 people.
Photo: Europeana Foundation, Europe - CC BY-SA.
The suffering of the Yazidis
On August 3, 2014, ISIS militants entered the towns in northern Iraq where a Yazidi majority lived with the intention of exterminating them. They killed 5,000 men and kidnapped 6,700 women and children as sex slaves. Many managed to escape towards the Sinjar mountain. And that was the beginning of a great diaspora: 200,000 internally displaced people, 50,000 refugees in other countries.
Both the United Nations and different countries on several continents have officially recognized the Yazidi Genocide.
Help recovering lives
What does APY do?
APY, Friends of the Yazidi People, was born to provide an immediate response in the refugee camps and is currently present to help in development projects that contribute to regenerating the devastated area in Iraq, helping the Yazidis return to their land.
Current projects
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Sinjar Playground € 5,000
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Sewing workshop € 20,000
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Library for a school € 50,000
