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Funding Projects 2009-2010

Country: Iraq

Project Title: Rehabilitation & Job Skills Training Center

Location: Mosul, Iraq

Target Audience: Iraqi children involved in armed conflict and militias

Situation: Due to the war in Iraq, the majority of the insurgent groups and militias are recruiting teenagers as fighters, planters of mines, roadside bombs and car-suicide bombs. These children are easy to exploit, and are often lured into this work through brainwashing, and the promise of an easy source of income.

Project Description: A rehabilitation center that addresses the psychological, educational and economic needs of children affiliated with armed conflict. The center provides psychological/social/rehabilitation/economical supports for the teenagers of Neinewa (Mousel) province as preventive and curing measures to combat trafficking and exploiting children and teenagers by insurgents. Working together with community businesses, the center will educate and train these teenagers with job skills and help them find employment within the community work force. In the short term, USAID will provide funding for teens to engage in community cleanup projects, giving them a more access to money while improving the community. The center will also raise awareness with the children, about child and human rights as well as respect for cultural and religious diversities

Supporting Organization(s): Bustan (Darstan) Association for Children’s Media and Culture; Suleimanya, Iraq

Outcomes/goals:
Short Term: Iraqi youths will have an immediate place to turn as an alternative to joining militias; they will receive psychological counseling to help them readjust to regular life; teenagers will have an alternate source of making money through the community clean up projects; the community will benefit due to the cleanup effort.

Long Term: Iraqi youths will develop marketable skills and be able to secure jobs in the community that support them financially. They will be able to see a different future for themselves as opposed to joining insurgent groups; teens will have a greater understanding of, and respect for, diversity.

Country: Afghanistan

Project Title: Vocational Training & Development Center

Location: Khost, Afghanistan

Target Audience: Afghani teens who have no post high school education options.

Situation: Due to decades of war, Afghanistan has become a breeding ground for extremist ideology and children are its most vulnerable citizens. Over the next three years, millions of students will graduate from high school in Afghanistan, however with less than 50,000 going on to college, the lack of options and economic opportunities among the remaining kids makes them highly susceptible for recruitment by the Taliban, warlords and other insurgencies.

Project Description: As a supplement to the school in Khost, this vocational training and development center will create opportunities for sustainable employment to students in 7th grade and older through highly marketable skills including embroidery, tailoring, briquette making, jam making, and carpentry. Through this entrepreneurial program, the goal is for each student to create a small and viable business by graduation.

The center will provide the initial investment, training, economic incentives, and project support in exchange for a co-investment of 5% of profits back in to the school fund. The collective school fund will be used by the school administration for projects including teacher salaries, new science laboratories, playgrounds, higher quality the health clinics, etc.

This center is more than an opportunity to help Afghani teens gain economic security, it will empower them by allowing them to take part in shaping their own futures and discovering new possibilities for their lives.

Supporting Organization(s): Partnership for Education of Children in Afghanistan

Outcomes/goals:
Short Term: Afghani teens will be empowered by developing marketable skills and realizing that they have access to a larger future because of it; through the generation of income, they will be able to continue to finance their education

Long Term: By increasing the role of the schools as an economic engine in the community, Afghanis will gain greater access to education, be able to provide financial support to their own families and to help safeguard against extremism within their communities. New businesses developed will directly support the economic development of the schools as well.

Country: USA

Project Title: US/Afghani Peer Mentorship Project

Location: Minnesota

Target Audience: Teenage children of deployed US soldiers; Afghani teenage Merit Scholars

Situation: US military teens with parents deployed in war zones are at risk due to familial instability and fears about the welfare of their deployed parents. They feel isolated from the issues while suffering from a sense of loss and helplessness. While there are organizations dedicated to emotional support, these teens need opportunities to engage in leadership activities that will help them refocus their energy in positive and healthy ways by supporting the emotional needs of others. Afghani students living in the US as a part of the Merit Scholar program are in need of peer support while acclimating to the community during their year abroad. They need help making friends and adjusting to life far away from everything they know.

Project Description: This is a mutual peer mentorship program where US military kids are paired with Afghani kids for one year of bi-weekly retreats where they engage in team-building exercises, offer emotional support and engage in cross-cultural exchange. Facilitated by team leaders, these student interactions will help put a human face on the “other” culture, as well as foster a sense of partnership, trust and support between each pair of kids. The program will culminate in a co-created fundraiser/awareness campaign where each pair will create and execute a service project that supports the needs of other US military/Afghani kids.

Supporting Organization(s): World Link, Inc.

Outcomes/goals:
Short Term: Help relieve some of the anxiety faced by US military kids by putting a human face on the country where their parent is deployed; kids will feel a sense of contribution to the cause that their parent is supporting by helping foster peace and goodwill towards Afghanistan here in the US; deployed parents will gain a sense of comfort knowing that their child has a constructive peace-building project/outlet that they can stay engaged with while they are away; give the kids a way to show support for their parent’s effort in supporting Afghanistan.

Long Term: Help the Afghani kids and their families experience the benevolent spirit of American people through the child of a soldier.

 

Young Ambassadors Program-2009 

Mission

-To engage American and Iraqi youth in peacemaking through interactive cultural exchanges and peer-to-peer conflict resolution exercises.

-To intervene early in the lives of at-risk Iraqi youth to break the cycle of isolation that leads to fear, distrust and militarization, and to help American youth play an active role in conflict mitigation and advocacy.

-By giving US and Iraqi youth the tools to work together, War Kids Relief will lay the foundation for a sustainable peace and support a generation of socially responsible citizens.

 

 

With donor support we will replicate this program all across the U.S. and Iraq in a sustainable, long term program.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support this important peace-building mission.

  

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  1. Partnering with an existing youth organization in Iraq (Darstan Media Group), WKR brings kids on both sides together through cultural exchange and peace-building education in a time-efficient and cost-effective way.
  2. We use a multi-media approach to teaching cultural and civic education, conflict resolution skills, and peer-to-peer mediation.
  3. We equip youth in both areas with communication and advocacy skills to share their message within their communities, both in Iraq and the US, and use technology to achieve scalable, sustainable and ever increasing results.

 

Target group: Age 12-15

In Iraq, this age cohort is the most vulnerable for recruitment into insurgent groups and unhealthy activities. In the US, this age cohort is hungry for service, but often lacks the tools to turn their intentions into action. On both sides, WKR’s program provides a forum for connection and teaches the techniques for building a sustainable peace with “the other,”

no matter how different their beliefs.

 

Young Ambassador Program

Phase I:

 -Working through Public Library Youth Programming, WKR will conduct 3 two-hour sessions during which 100 US students (in Washington DC, New York City and Minnesota) will learn about the history and culture of Iraq, as well as the current war situation for their peers through hands on activities.

-They will also create cultural care packages containing games, letters, art, video diaries and video lessons of something they want to share with 100 of their Iraqi peers in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Suleimanya.

-In addition to lessons on culture, sessions will focus on “speaking peace,” diversity and respect and tolerance, as adapted from “Help Increase the Peace” manual by American Friends Service Committee.


Phase II:

-Building upon the learning and transformational experiences from Phase I, these first 100 kids will become program ambassadors that help widen the scope to 1,500 kids in each area. From there, this larger group of students will become a part of a unique peace-building project in Iraq involving 4,500 kids from the ethnically volatile cities of Baghdad, Kirkuk and Mosul.

-Over a 12-month period, these students will observe, support and participate in the peace-building process with these at-risk Iraqi kids, learning the importance of dialog, conflict resolution, tolerance and human rights by sharing their individual experiences on both sides.

-Students will be able to participate in direct communication via social networking and podcast production.

 

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Both US and Iraqi youth will begin and end the program with an assessment examining their understanding and perceptions of people in the other country/culture.

 

Progress reports and data from this pilot program will be posted on this website as the exchange takes place over the coming months.

 

For information, please contact Gunnar at WarKidsRelief dot org

War Kids Relief is a program of Children’s Culture Connection, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Photos on this page by Paul Corbit Brown

  

 


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