Support and Empower Yezidi Survivors in the Aftermath of Genocide
Free Yezidi Foundation promotes the rights and well-being of Yezidis, with an emphasis on women’s empowerment, the pursuit of justice, and helping the community rebuild through trauma treatment, education, training, and economic development.
Empowering Those Most Vulnerable
The Free Yezidi Foundation's (FYF) organizational priorities are built on twin pillars: the rights of Yezidis and women and girls throughout Iraq.
WHY WE WORK WITH YEZIDIS
In August 2014, the so-called Islamic State carried out a genocide against the Yezidi ethno-religious minority in Iraq, resulting in mass killings, forced conversations, enslavement of over 6,000 Yezidi women and children, displacement of over 400,000 Yezidis, and destruction of the Yezidi homeland of Sinjar. Almost a decade later, the community continues to suffer the impact of the genocide, with nearly half the population still internally displaced, over 2,600 Yezidis still missing or in captivity, and a lack of basic resources and infrastructure in Sinjar. The community needs holistic and tangible support to rebuild, recover, and establish resiliency.
WHY WE WORK WITH WOMEN
FYF operates under the principle that there are no human rights without women’s rights. FYF will empower Yezidi women to combat gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls within Yezidi society, as well as broader Iraq society.
FYF is women-led and attaches great importance to working with women from other communities, particularly minority and vulnerable groups in Iraq. Through its programming and internal policies and procedures, FYF builds the capacity of Yezidi and other minority women to become leaders in their communities. FYF integrates gender equity principles into its operations and human resources practices, reflecting its organizational values of promoting the rights of women and girls.
FYF’s success will include the development and advancement of Yezidi and other minority women beneficiaries and staff members to serve as changemakers and community leaders in both Yezidi and women’s rights civic spaces. This priority runs throughout each FYF strategic goal and embodies FYF’s ethos as an organization.
For information on alternative ways to donate, please contact giving@freeyezidi.org.