Ok, so maybe the title of today's post is a little bit of a misnomer, but our commentators today all mention NGO projects…and I'll give you some extra links to other Kurdish NGO projects as well.
Pearls of Iraq officially starts her purple ribbon campaign for the people of Iraq [1](and this includes the Kurds). Check her website for supporting graphics if you are interested.
Today starts the official campaign of the Iraq Purple and Yellow Ribbon Campaign. The Ribbons symbolize support for the Iraqi people to be tied with a yellow ribbon for the troops: American, international and the Iraqi military who are making a positive difference. The purple finger of freedom combined with the yellow is a great way to show the Iraqi people our support.
Pearls of Iraq [2]also gives us a wonderful evaluation of the Kurdish NGO Kurdistan Save the Children [3]:
I visited with Kurdistan Save the Children whose work expands Kurdistan and includes Baghdad. They are strong in education, youth centers and cultural centers, which they call Kaziwa which means ‘dawn’ in Kurdish. I visited one center in Sulaimaniya and was so pleased at the hard work four young men have accomplished over the years. They have developed a large youth center with many activities including sports, art, computer training, English classes, music rooms, computer rooms, internet café (the young people pay tiny fee which teaches them respect of equipment) exercise workout room (for both girls and boys, scheduled appropriately), a media and film department, cafeteria, and a huge center hall with a circle upper balcony, perfect for drum circles. He was very open to different activities including the drum circles that I suggested. Music and art in addition to other activities is strongly encouraged.
The manager of this center is a young man with his 3 associates and they have the drive and good hearts to help the children in the city.
Save Roj TV reminds us [4] that the new Impact Report from the Kurdish Human Rights Watch [5] is now available for download. KHRP produces some wonderful stuff, I highly recommend them.
Rasti [6] writes about the Turkey section of the new Amnesty International report [7]:
In general, AI seems to be in agreement that things are really going to hell in Turkey. After the events of the first half of this year, I predict AI's 2007 report is going to be a lot more intense. Give that report a read so that you can make your own comparison of how bad things have gotten.
For other links to worthy Kurdish NGO's see the following:
American Kurdish Information Network [8]
Institute Kurde de Paris [9]
KOMAK [10]
Washington Kurdish Institute [11]
And if you still hunger for more, there is a pretty long list at my other website Kurdistan Blog Count. [12]
Till next week….