The Second Round of Field Activities within Only One Step Away in the Countryside of Tirbespi

GAV – Tirbespi

GAV4RD team resumed, on 21 April, 2018, their field activity tours in villages of Nabu’ah, Hilwet Ash-Sheikh, and Faris Al-Kabeer in the countryside of Tirbespi. These tours come after the conclusion of the tours through the villages of Al-Hasakeh, 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-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 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 contribute 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.

Hilwet Ash-Sheikh It is a Kurdish village, about 6 kilometers to the East of Tirbespi, and 22 kilometers to the West of Qamishli. It is famous for growing wheat and barley, and recently the farmers started to grow cumin and coriander as well.  The village’s name, which means beautiful in Arabic, is due to the fascinating natural scenery in the village. The word Sheik was added to the name after the religious scholar Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hakki came to live there. His mosque is still in the village. The population suffers from health problems because of the many petrol burners (primitive petrol refineries) in the village.

Faris Al-Kabeer It is an Arab village located 8 kilometers to the South of Tirbespi, 7 kilometers to the South East of Tal Ma’rouf. The village is named Faris Al-Kabeer after Faris Abdurrahman, a clan leader from Tai Clan who is the father of Mohammed Faris, the current leader of Tai Clan.  The village is famous for growing wheat and barley. The spread of primitive petrol refineries is a real tragedy for the population as the smoke they produce has caused many diseases for the population.

Nabu’ah This is an Arab village, located about 7 kilometers to the South of Tirbespi and 6 kilometers to the South East of Tal Ma’rouf. The Arabic name is due to the abundance of springs in the village. It is known for growing wheat and barley.

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 transferred 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 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, and 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, and the 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 dialogue 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.

Despite the ethnic diversity of Tirbespi countryside, the team noticed that there were some obstacles that hindered communication between the components in the region’s population due current circumstances since 2011, which resulted in some isolation in each component. Therefore, the team invited the population to build new social relationships and solve the current disputes by accepting the others and accepting differences as a healthy situation that exists in all societies.   Thus, the team has finished its tours in six of the eight villages included in the activity plan in the countryside of Tirbespi.

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.