The GAV4RD team are continuing the field activities in the villages of Al-Hasakah countryside

GAV – Al-Hasakah

GAV4RD team resumed on 9 April, 2018 their field activity tours in villages of Jamiliya, Shama, Tal Baydar, Abu Rasin, and Simtik in the countryside of Al-Hasakah. These tours come after the conclusion of the tours through the villages of Darbasiyah, within the project “Only One Step Away” which was launched at the beginning of February, 2018.

Field activities came immediately after the preparatory tours to villages in rural areas of Al-Hasakah, 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 as well as 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 on preparing some phrases calling for peace, to be used in brochures and in 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.

Jamilya is a Kurdish village, 30 km to the north of Al-Hasakeh. The village is less than 90 years old and is named after its previous owner, Jamil. It is famous for its fascinating scenery and for growing wheat and barley.

Shama is another Kurdish village, 30 km to the west of Al-Hasakeh. The village name is Assyrian and comes from the Assyrian rule era in the region, i.e. 3000 years ago. The village is famous for the cultivation of wheat, barley, lentils, cumin, and garlic. For the people of the region, the history of the village is perhaps represented by an archaeological mound, which tells a lot about the history of that region. The village has become, therefore, a famous tourist attraction.

Tal Baydar is an Arab village, 35 km to the northwest of Al-Hasakeh. It is famous for growing wheat and barley. It is also an archaeological attraction for tourists from around the world. In addition, it has a special location at a crossroad between the major cities in Al-Jazira region.

Simitk Ezzo is a Kurdish village, located 10 km east of Amouda City and 10 km to the west of Qamishli. It is a small village adjacent to an archaeological village called Kri Mozan.  It was given that name due to the presence of three small adjacent hills. The village is famous for the cultivation of wheat, barley and cumin.

Abu Rasin is an Arab village, 20 km to the north of Al-Hasakah. The village got its name, which means in Arabic the one with two heads, from the presence of two hills near the village. It is famous for the cultivation of barley, cotton, and wheat, as well as keeping livestock. The village is famous in the region also for a simple person known as Abu Al-Halwa (the candy guy) because eats a lot of candy.

The Organization team has been able to communicate their ideas through their 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 carried out a number of activities in order to strengthen the relationship between the various components of the region’s population, and propagating peace and accepting the other. The team members exchanged traditional costumes from the different components (Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs) expressing the principle of accepting the other. They were also divided into groups to carry out visits to the homes of the populations which helped the team members and the population to get acquainted with each other.

Meetings with population members were essential in order to find out problems leading to discordance, to limiting relationships and keeping them within the boundaries of economic relations and trade, which are also limited. The team noticed a limited amount of genuine relationships between some people of various components, which were mostly related to commerce, education … etc.

During the discussion sessions with the population of the target villages, several problems were raised and were discussed interactively, stressing the importance of establishing channels for communication with the inhabitants of neighboring villages and members of other components. Interaction between components should not be merely restricted 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 dialog and discussion sessions, the team prepared for the artistic session, which included performances of three dabkas (Syriac, Arabic and Kurdish) with participation from the population who danced with the team members. Afterwards, there was a singing session that included performing folk songs belonging to the three components, and it was followed by a theatrical show that conveyed the “Only One Step Away” project message of civil peace and peaceful 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.

The villages in the countryside of Al-Hasakah are characterized by their ethnic diversity. However, they suffer from a phase of reduced social and cultural interaction between the various ethnic components. Members of the population of villages from different components only visit each other on certain occasions and their relationships are no longer deep. Therefore, people in the region needed to break that paradigm through social development projects, targeting as many villages as much as possible to spread awareness about the principles of civil peace, accepting the other, and peaceful coexistence.

It is worth mentioning that GAV4RD team continues to perform its tours through the villages Tirbespi, and it is expected to finish the last phase of the project on 26 April, 2018.