For over a year, the SEED Center in Mamilyan Camp, Akre, has provided services to displaced Iraqis, largely from the Yezidi and Shabak minority communities, who suffered horrific abuses at the hands of ISIS. Although some of their villages have now been freed, in most cases it is unsafe to return to them due to many explosive remnants of war and booby-traps placed by ISIS. Other villages have been destroyed by fighting, making return impossible at this stage.

As the effort to liberate Ninewa has gained speed over the last few months, Mamilyan Camp has received hundreds of new residents fleeing conflict. Those arriving recently have lived under ISIS’s oppression for more than two years and, as a result, have significant needs, including mental health services and social work services to help them recover. There is also an urgent need to provide access to income-generating activities. SEED is working to deliver these much-needed services to this population.