Stories Slide
"Three Brothers"
The three brothers have exploited the opportunity at Panaga to express themselves through the plays they make. The theme of their plays has revolved around parenthood, respect, helping others, jealousy and telling the truth. The program is a voluntarily led program by our team of local volunteers who are eager about helping their community. The program lasts for three months, it offers lessons of art, music, character and English language.
Yaprakh is a Kurdish food that has different eatable stuffed vegetables with rice like leaves, onions, eggplants and tomatoes, potatoes, meat and so on.
“MY BROTHER IS MY HERO”
"It is fun. I learn a lot of things. The teachers are very nice with us" says Arslan at Panaga "The teachers taught me how to be a good human", he explained that "the kids should not just respect the elders, they should respect people younger than them." Azad is 9 years old from the district of Shingal. Azad comes to Panaga with two other of his brothers Ali and Kalash . Azad is the naughty one while his brothers are quieter. They lost their father when ISIS overrun Shingal district back in Aug. 2014. Their family includes seven brothers and three sisters. They love every one of their family. Azad and Ali are on the right and left, their friend, Kalash is in the middle. Azad and his brothers explained that they love their oldest brother the most, who is a nurse, since he has been playing the father's role and providing the family. He also explained that his mom cooks them delicious food that their favorite is Yaprakh1. (Make sure you try out next time you are in Iraq)
"All she need was an opportunity"
She is a 21 year old girl, youngest sister to five brothers and five sisters. She lives with her sister and parents. I remember her being shy and a girl who would hide herself in a corner. Today I was surprised to see her at Panaga center with a unch of flowers greeting us in our office. From a girl who couldn’t write her own name when we first found her to now joining girls clubs, playing football, going to gym and improving her job skills in different trainings.
Today she is at Panaga center to get on a three monthinternship for a job placement with nine other girls and boys. We are proud, excited for Yasmin and her progress in a few years. She is a great example of the power of Yezidi girls. All we did is our job in providing the opportunity and she used it in the best way possible.
“The Story of Fisherman’s Son”
anonymous is 11 years
anonymous is 10 years
anonymous is 7 years
anonymous, anonymous and anonymous are three internally displaced kids that live in the town of Shariya among host community households. While my friend and I were buying a fish to grill “Mazgoof fish1”, their father Ahmed who is a fisherman asked me if Panaga has a program to enroll his kids. The father explained that his seven-year-old son, Lavand has not been able to go to school because of a mistake in his birth year on his ID. We were happy to enroll Lavand and his two brothers in our program and provide them with the opportunity to learn and have fun. The three brothers have been learning English, character lessons, English music and drama at Panaga. They were grateful for the opportunity, thanked Panaga and their team.
No Friends but the Mountains
She stayed for 10 days in the mountains with her family and then walked to Syria with hardly any food or drinking water. She was continuously complaining to her family about her demands. She used bad words. She would ask others money and debt from shops without her family’s knowledge. She was very sensitive, angry and usually cried. She efused to take baths. She went out of home without telling her family.
She is skinny. She has brown eyes; she had a long hair and she didn’t use to take care of her appearances. Besides, she always listened carefully, was curious and wanted to learn and explore. The team gave instructions on how to handle the daughter. The team who visited her family showed care, listened to their problems and gave them advice. Murad had individual healing play sessions where he got the chance to do counseling and give a lot of related instructions. She participated in classes and would discuss her ideas with the teacher.
We were happy to see her behavior remarkably improved after four months of the program. She improved her relationship with her family and siblings.
Bewar Rizgo Sharo
He is 7 years old. He is from Shingal. He has been living in Shariya camp for his entire life. We visited his family to learn about his behavior and check on his progress during his participation in our program. On our first visit to his family, his mother said they have spoiled Bewar because he looks different as he is very special to them more than anyone one in the family. He would not listen to his mother and whenever he wanted something and we did not give to him, he would cry till he gets it. Moreover, his father would bring him whatever he requests. For example, he would spend a lot of time on phone, if someone takes the phone from him, he would fight. This was a big issue for his mother, since she did not know how deal with him. She would spend most of the time fulfilling Bewar’s needs rather than doing her chore. ‘’my son spends most of
the time on the phone playing action games, he is addicted to it’’ his mother said. It was obvious because Bewar was very aggressive with his family and class mates in classes.
Bewar participated in MHPSS program for three months where the team Improved his behavior positively by giving character building lessons, advice, visit the family and work with his parents. Moreover, the team encouraged him to participate in group activities such as games, dancing, and drama to build self-confidence, self-esteem, and provided him opportunities to make more friends and encourage positive behavior. Beside his participation in the program the psychologist visited his family regularly and did group, individual sessions and counseling to the family, more importantly they provided his mother methods on how to deal the issue. Day by day Bewar behavior changed noticeably, He now not only listens to his mother but help her doing her chore.
Ali Haji Abdo
Ali is a 10 years old boy who lives in Shariya camp. When he first came to our center, he used to isolate himself and would avoid participating in activities and games. His teachers said that Ali was rarely communicating with his friends in the center and nor with his family. The art therapist offered him to participate in a dancing group but he refused to join the group, he was being shy. The fire breakout messed up his mental condition. Panaga center helped him get recovered from the mental disturbances that he experienced.
For this reason, our therapist Mr. Bewar did psychological sessions with Ali. He did sessions till the end of the program. He eventually graduated and finished with sessions.
He recovered quite well. Ali developed few skills. For instance, during the last month Ali was able to respond when somebody talked to him, Ali was able to make eye contact and express himself.
