GAV4RD Finished Field Activity Tours in the Villages of Darbasiyah Countryside

GAV – Darbasiyah

GAV for Relief and Development team finished the field activity tours of the project ‹Only One Step Away› in the villages of Jinaziyah and Qantar in Darbasiyah southern countryside on 26 March, 2018.

Field activities came immediately after the preparatory tours to villages in rural areas of Al-Hasakeh, Darbasiyah and Tirbespi, which supplied the program team in the Organization with a full view of the situation in those villages from a socio-economic perspective and other perspectives. A team of volunteer students was also prepared and involved in workshops about three training topics (communication skills, administrative skills, and artistic/cultural skills).

The students that attended these workshops, who belonged to various components of the population (Kurds, Arabs, and Syriacs), and the IDP members in the team worked together on preparing some slogans calling for peace, to be used in brochures and on stickers on the campaign cars. These phrases contributed to conveying the message of the project to the population of the villages these cars passed through. Among these phrases were the following: peace is not born in conferences but rather in the hearts and minds of people; in agreement we see half the truth and in disagreement we see the other half.

The villages of Jinaziyah and Qantar in the countryside of Darbasiyah are known for growing wheat and barley and they are famous for their calm and fascinating atmosphere.  Jinaziyah is an Arab village whose names comes of the Arabic word Jinaza which means funeral. It had this name because of the many funerals during the wars between tribes in the past. To the north of the village, there is a hill called Jinaziyah Hill. It is worth mentioning that the locals now call this village Jinan (heavenly gardens).  Qantar is a Kurdish village named after the water arches that led water alongside the bridge in the village in the past. It is worth mentioning that one of the mukhtars (village mayors) was so illuminated and had six children, four of whom became doctors and one of them became an engineer. This family became an example for success in the Darbasiyah area.

The Organization team has been able to communicate their ideas through their own small community, their team in which they lived together over two months of exercises and activities. They exchanged, in this period, cultural views, and formed friendships between them. They have also transfered their small experience to the people in the targeted villages, stressing the need to stand together hand in hand to spread this spirit and turn it into a community culture.

The Organization’s team conducted a number of purposeful activities in order to enhance the relationships between the components of the area and propagate peace and the culture of peaceful coexistence. The team members exchanged traditional clothes, representing the various components of the population (Kurds, Arabs, and Syriacs), which expressed the concept of tolerance and accepting the other. This exchanged helped the team members and the population get to know each other in a better way. The team members met elders from the two villages and talked about the good relationship between the various components, particularly old stories from the region which were rich in examples of cooperation and mutual understanding. They also referred to the erosion of these good relationships in the crisis that has lasted for years. The team stressed to the elders the importance of their role in regaining the rapport between the components and their influence on young people to consolidate and refresh these relationships.  On the other hand, the activity showed the population the extent of cooperation and understanding among the team members, who were students from all components.

The discussion addressed several topics revolving around enhancing civil peace: the relationship among the various components, the problems that hinder the communication between them, how to find solutions, paying attention to obstacles and working to remove them … etc. This discussion contributed to building an atmosphere of love among the team members and the population.

On their part, the population showed great hospitality and welcome for the team. They invited them to have dinner and popular drinks, expressing their happiness with the interactive atmosphere that the team spread in the two villages. Children were particularly happy with the activities and the locals got to know the folklore costumes of other components.

During the dialog several problems were raised and were discussed interactively, and the importance of establishing channels for communication with the inhabitants of neighboring villages and members of other components. Interaction between components should not be restricted merely to the economic domain, but rather it should include culture, history, and social relationships. Disagreements should not unravel the social coherence that has lasted for hundreds of years.

After finishing the dialog session, the team got ready for the artistic sketch within the activity. Three dabkas (Syriac, Kurdish, and Arab) were performed and the population liked them and some members from population even joined the team members in the dabka performance. Then, there was a singing performance of folk songs from the three components, followed by a theatrical show which conveyed the message of the project, civil peace and peace and coexistence.

In addition, a special show for children was performed at the end. The show included contests among the children and some award distribution. The program ended with a collective dabka with participation from the population.

During the interactive activity with the population of the two villages, the team members found that most of the population members do not have relationships with members from the rest of the components that share the same region with them despite the differences. Most of them did not have channels for communication with others, which indicates that social relationships were greatly limited.

The activities that the team performed broke the routine of the communities in these villages, conveyed a message of peace, and asserted the necessity of consolidation among all to make these communities a safe haven in the midst of the great tumults surrounding them. It is necessary to mainstream the concept of good social relationships and not restricting the relationships among the components to commercial and economic interaction. The population needs to remember the natural state that was prevalent before the years of the crisis so that this remembrance could lead to real peace based on positive peaceful co-existence.

It is worth mentioning that the team continues to perform visits to the villages of Al-Hasakeh and Tirbespi as the final stage of the project (the field visits) continues until 26 April, 2018.