(28 Aug 2019) LEAD IN: A new orphanage in northern Iraq is welcoming Yazidi children whose parents were killed by the Islamic State group.
The Juveen Charity Orphanage provides housing, food, school and psychological support to the children.
STORY-LINE:
Children sing together from the comfort of a sofa.
This orphanage is called Juveen, which means "gathering" in Kurdish.
It has opened in the town of Sharia, to house and feed these Yazidi children.
Funded by a local Yazidi donor called Basheer Koriye, the house welcomes children from five to 13 years-old.
Their parents were killed when the Islamic State group swept into the Yazidi communities of Sinjar in August 2014.
"We host three categories of children here," explains social worker Shamal Selim.
"The first is children who have lost both parents," she says.
"The second is children who have lost their father but have their mother, and the third is children who have lost their mother but have their father."
Children with one remaining parent receive day care and return to their camp at night, while those who have lost both parents sleep in the orphanage.
The home has already welcomed 30 children, the maximum it can accommodate.
They provide the children with support from a psychotherapist, as well as lessons in IT, painting and music.
They also teach English, Arabic, and Kurdish.
Diyar Dawoud Omar is a nine year old boy from Sinjar.
He was taken by the Islamic State group and returned recently.
His mother died and his father remarried.
"Here is nicer than the camp," he says.
"Our tent is very hot under the sun, it is torn apart, and there is only a little electricity," he explains.
At Juveen, he can eat and learn with other children in a comfortable setting.
"In Juveen house, we want to make these children feel just like any other," says Kawa Eido Khatari, the supervisor of Juveen Charity Orphanage.
"To know the same love and compassion that a child with parents knows," he says.
"Today, the doors of Juveen house are open to any child who has lost parents and to the children who were in the hands of Daesh."
Nedima Ismael Jouda is a 10 year-old from Sinjar.
Her father was killed by the Islamic State group and she lives with her mother in a camp for displaced Yazidi people in Dohuk.
"Actually there is no life in the camp," she explains.
"We could not believe that the doors of goodness could be open for us. So we came here to be helped."
The orphanage hopes to expand so it can help more children.
The governorate of Dohuk has allocated a piece of land in Sharia for a bigger orphanage.
Iraq's northern Kurdish region hosts more than 1 million displaced people, including many of the 200,000 Yazidis forced to flee their homes when the Islamic State militants attacked their communities in 2014.
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