Sisters’ Stories: "I can now stand for myself as a woman and be proud of who I am"
Nuha is a 40-year-old refugee who fled from Syria two years ago and moved to Duhok city.
As a single mother of two children, she found she often felt overwhelmed and unsure where to turn for support. “I’d sometimes feel so lonely and depressed,” Nuha says. “I felt like I was goalless, and there were no opportunities to learn something new.”
A few months ago, she applied to join our Peace Sisters & Brothers project, which is training 50 women and men to become peace mediators in their own communities.
Funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Government, the project is designed to help restore harmony within fractured communities, focusing on conflict resolution techniques, women empowerment, cooperation and integration, plus confidence-building techniques. Participants come from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, including Yazidi, Christian and Muslim.
A Christian herself, Nuha has found the experience to be incredibly positive so far. “I’ve been delighted by the effect of this training on my personal life,” she says. “The mediation training helped me improve my skills and mental health, as well as my communication skills and Kurdish language. I’ve also met many warm-hearted people and made new friends.”
Nuha adds: “As a divorced woman, I felt left out, and like society has forced rules on me, or that I have disappointed people – when maybe it wasn’t even my fault. I decided to join the project as I wanted to learn how to be a mediator and to solve problems. Most importantly I want to show the world that the cause of a problem is not always a woman. I have been blamed for my, my previous husband’s and my children’s mistakes. I want to show them that just like women, men also make mistakes.”
The project will continue until the end of this year, and Nuha continues: “I feel I can now stand for myself as a woman and be proud of who I am. I am strong and independent and most importantly, I now know how to prevent my kids from arguing, and how to be a better mother for them.
“I totally believe that this project improves integration and strengthens social cohesion among communities. I’ve learnt that there is light at the of the tunnel – if we have desire to change. I also came to the conclusion that a woman who is OK with being alone is a powerful woman.
“I want to thank everyone who supports us, and tries to provide us with better lives.”
We’re so glad to be able to reach women like Nuha on this project, and hope it’s just the very beginning…
Support our peacebuilding work
Can you help us provide more life-changing opportunities to women like Nuha?