Nadima is an 18-year-old who was displaced from Sinjar during the ISIS conflict, when she was just a young child. “My life before displacement was beautiful,” she recalls. “I used to go to school, play with my friends and classmates, and I was very happy. However, everything changed on that dark day in 2014.”
Like so many others in the region, Nadima was fast asleep at home when the attacks first turned her family’s life upside down. “I heard the sound of gunfire, and when my family and relatives gathered, we decided to try and escape because if we stayed, we knew they would kill the men and take the women. We fled to the mountains and stayed there for seven days. We had very little food and only a small amount of water for more than 60 people.”
The family then walked to the Syrian border and eventually reached Kurdistan and the relative safety of Essyan camp. Nadima began attending school there, but now has to study and maintain a job at the same time because her father is ill and unable to work to support them.
“Life in the camp is tough,” she says. “Some nights, we can't sleep because we fear our tents might catch fire, and we might burn with them. The tent is not really a shelter from the harsh conditions and weather either.”
She first heard of the Lotus Flower through a Facebook post about our art therapy classes, and adds: “I attended the course and discovered my love for art. Drawing allows me to channel negative energy within me and transform it into beautiful artwork. I have benefitted greatly from the course, and it has allowed me to leave my tent and make new friends.”
Our art therapy classes have extremely positive effects on many of those who survived the conflict, and self-expression through creative practice is known to alleviate trauma, as well as improving mental health.
We’re so glad Nadima has found an outlet for what she suffered as such a young girl, and what she continues to endure while living in displacement…