“But for many, especially those born into life under Daesh [Isis], they do not know their own identity and do not have a clue who they are.”
Children get to have fun at the Springs of Hope Foundation (Courtesy)[Missing Credit]
Miara described one young girl who came through the centre’s doors. She had given herself a tattoo of her name by dipping a needle into dye, while she was tailoring her captor’s uniform.
When asked by centre staff why she had done it, she explained that it was the only way she wouldn’t forget who she was.
Springs of Hope foundation opened its doors in 2015, one year after Isis massacred the Yazidis’ homeland in Iraq’s Sinjar region. Those who weren’t killed were enslaved. Young boys were forcibly radicalised while young girls were sold to fighters as sex slaves. Around half a million people managed to flee and found themselves in refugee camps around Kurdistan. When Springs of Hope Foundation opened, children and teenagers from more than a dozen refugee camps were welcomed. Their stories were shocking. “You have to remember,” Miara said, “we are dealing with Isis.”
One child had been tied up on a roof for two weeks; another was found under rubble in Mosul. Miara spoke about one orphaned child who had arrived at the centre crying in the playground. “‘It’s only me left. It’s only me left,’ he kept on saying,” she said.
More than 200 attend the Sharya centre each day, and Miara has, over the years, constructed methods to help support those who come through her doors. She tells all her 25 staff to listen more than they talk and to not ask questions until the young attendees are ready. Small gestures make big shifts in recovery – like leaving fruit out for one child who spent the first few months sitting on a concrete slab too afraid to move.
“One day, he ate a piece,” Miara said. “The next day he ate two. We earned his trust.”
Miara, who made aliyah to Israel from the UK when she was young, said when Hamas carried out the October 7 attacks, it was a “copy and paste” of Isis’s massacre of the Yazidis in 2014.
Isis sees Israel as its mortal enemy and Miara initially kept her nationality quiet – but one day, it came out.
Attendees get to ride horses at the centre (Courtesy)[Missing Credit]
“One of the teenagers asked where I was from, and I told them, ‘Israel’,” Miara recounted. “As soon as I said it, he exclaimed, ‘Daesh hate Israel.’ I just replied, ‘yes’. Then he shouted in pure joy, ‘Israel, Israel, Israel.’ The word spread, and many of them realised that if I was from the country that their barbaric captors hated, I must be on their side. It made them know they were safe.
“Mentioning Israel was a breakthrough for a lot of them.”
In their time at the centre, attendees are educated, given therapy, fed, allowed to ride horses and taught how to look after the animals, each other, and themselves.
They are also offered vocational training and helped into work.
Activities at the centre include drawing and arts and crafts. “They come in knowing the name of every weapon, but not the name of the colour red,” Miara said. “Their colour had been stolen from them. We give it back.”
There is no limit for length of time the young refugees are allowed to attend the centre. Some travel two hours each day from other refugee camps to attend.
Children and teenagers are supported by 25 staff at the foundation (Courtesy)[Missing Credit]
Miara said: “Some of them have left and become interns. Some have gained positions of authority. Some have even ended up working at the centre.
“I’ve seen some of them get married years after they leave. I’ve seen pictures of them wearing traditional Kurdish clothes. Some of the women, who were girls when they came in, are now starting families.”
Since 2015, the Springs of Hope Foundation has helped thousands of children and teenagers recover from the trauma of life under Isis.
In its own words, on its website, it states: “We do this quietly. No fanfare. No spotlight. Just the daily choice to love the forgotten, to stand with the wounded, and to believe in what could be. Because we’ve seen what happens when people are met with presence instead of pity – they rise.”
