Author: Radio Activité

October 5th, 2017.

Today, the radio workshop takes place in Daratu, in the community center held by Judy Organization for Relief and Development.

This organization was created by people from Syria who wanted to volunteer for communities of refugees and Internally displaced people. They are extremely motivated and focused on the dialogue between communities.

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Mohamed warmly welcomes  us. He works in this community center providing activities and administrative help for displaced people and refugees. Few minutes before the start of the workshop, he helps us to translate some specific questions from English to Arabic. He also brings us to one of the best food corners of the district, in order to try some delightful Falafel.

All the people are on time and happy to make their own radio program. Most of them have been living in Daratu since they left Syria or Western Iraq. There is M. Rôdi a musician, and M. Fauzi a poet who comes with his wife. She is a former craftswoman.

For their radio show, they wish to talk about children education, voluntary work and the independence of Kurdistan.

This last topic is on the agenda : the day after, a referendum will take place to say yes or no to the independence. They are very enthusiastic about it and most of them will be observers of the vote.

Here, you can listen to the whole program :

EXTRACTS HERE

October 2nd 2017.
Today, MicroCamp Radio is in Barika camp

This camp is  in Suleymanie Governorate and welcomes Syrian Kurdish refugees.

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The participants today are only women, and most of them have children. When we arrive, they say that they are surprised to be the ones to participate to the radio workshop: “you should have invited young people, they have more things to say and love media!” They say. But we reply that we are very pleased to discuss with older women, as we have few occasions to meet them. In fact, mothers usually mostly stay in the household, so their voices have few chances to be heard outside.

So today, while their children play on their knees, Syrian mothers speak about their childhood, daily life in a refugee camp in Iraq, and their future.

Their laughs, reflections, and intimate conversations are to listen here, in Kurdish and English !

October 7th 2017

Today, MicroCamp Radio is in Turaq, a village not far from Erbil in Judy Organization community center.

Judy Organization for Relief and Development, an NGO managed by Syrian refugees, runs a community centre in Turaq. This house in the village gathers Syrian refugees, internally displaced people and members of the host community.

We settle the workshop in an activity room with paintings on the wall. In another classroom, the NGO Qandil gives a training about legal issues for around 40 adults. Everybody seems focused and interested.

During our discussion, important questions arise. An issue for Syrian Kurds is how to find an arabic school in Erbil. As their children have started going to arabic schools in Syria, they would like to go on with this language ; but as Kurds, it is difficult for them to go to arabic schools here. We go on discussing about having children, and daily life in a family as refugees.

Two 20-years-old ladies get very committed and share their thoughts as young syrian refugees and mothers.

Listen to this fascinating program in the integral podcast here :

19.09.2017. Today, MicroCamp Radio workshop is in Harsham camp. 

We hold two workshops in the day. During the first session in the morning, participants name their program “Hope in the camp”.

Harsham camp, located not far from Erbil, welcomes 1,500 internally displaced Iraqis from cities of North-West Iraq such as Mosul and Sinjar. They fled because of the Islamic State.

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We are warmly welcomed by the camp manager who sits in an office at the entrance of this camp managed by The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF).

The morning when we arrive, a distribution of food and other items is taking place. Families come to take their packs for the week.

In 2014, when this camp was settled, conditions where hard. For example, there was 1 bathroom for 7 families. Families lived in tents and during the rainy season, water was entering in the shelters. Since that time, situation has improved. People live in caravans of 3 by 5 meters. There is generally electricity, although sometimes the generator runs out, and plenty of facilities like a golden container named Shared Studios in which one can communicate with people around the world and a brand new football stadium.

From the prefabricated housing where we discuss with Hihab, Kram, Samir, Réma, Raïma & Shénar, we hear people chatting outside.

Inside, we discuss about daily life in an IDP camp: status of women, food distributions, languages, cooking, sports…

Through their voices, we learn about their lives, their reflections, their wishes.

Listen to the integral program here :

October 5th 2017,
Today, we are in the community center held by Judy Organization for Relief and Development. This organization was created by young Syrians who wanted to volunteer for communities of refugees and IDPs. They are extremely motivated and focused on the dialogue between communities.

In Daratoo, a district in the suburbs of Erbil, Judy organization manages a community center which gathers Syrian refugees, IDPs and members of the host community. The centre is open on the outside and organizes different activities.

In the afternoon, we are with a group of women, Iraqis as well as Syrian. They wish to speak about forced child labor, and also about political issues as the referendum for the independence of Kurdistan is to take place the day after. They are very enthusiastic about it and most of them will be observers of the vote.

This very rich women-only program is to listen integrally here in English, Arabic and Kurdish :

  Translator : Muhammad.

1er Octobre 2017

Aujourd’hui, nous sommes à l’école française de Souleymanieh. Cette ville du sud du Kurdistan est le fief de l’opposition dans le pays, et se distingue par les cafés littéraires qui ornent les rues, son atmosphère étudiante et artistique. L’école française accueille environ 200 étudiants.

Nous rassemblons les élèves de quatrième et de troisième. Ils veulent parler de la vie d’adolescent, de l’amour, un peu de politique. De jeux vidéo et de foot. Et enfin, de l’égalité entre les filles et les garçons. C’est parti pour une émission haute en couleurs !

September 19th 2017
Today, MicroCamp Radio workshop is in Harsham camp.

This camp located not far from Erbil welcomes 1,500 internally displaced Iraqis from cities of North-West Iraq such as Mosul and Sinjar. They fled because of the Islamic State.

View Larger Map

We are warmly welcomed by the camp manager who sits in an office at the entrance of this camp managed by The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF).

The morning when we arrive, a distribution of food and other items is taking place. Families come to take their packs for the week.

In 2014, when this camp was settled, conditions where hard. For example, there was 1 bathroom for 7 families. Houses were tents and during the rainy season, water was entering in the shelters. Since then, situation has improved. People live in caravans of 3 by 5 meters. There is generally electricity, although sometimes the generator runs out, and plenty of facilities like a brand new football stadium and a golden container named Shared Studios in which one can communicate with people around the world.

We set the radio studio in a prefabricated housing at the entrance of the camp with Nesrin, Haida, Fatima, Shereen, Hani, Houda, Jasmina, Sohad, Sabiha, Hasma and Alya. They are all women who are neighbours in the camp. Their children play around us, climbing on their knees, running around. In the warmth of the afternoon, they are wiping their brows under their veils, chatting together.

Their memories of radio sometimes recall difficult times. “The first time I heard the radio”, Sohad says, “was to hear that America came and defeated the Iraqi government… I was so scared”. But radio is also a vector of hope, as Fatima says :”The radio gave me hope when we were under ISIS. I listened to it all day. Then ISIS destroyed the radios… and I cried, I missed it”.

Radio memories can also get more personal, like for Alya who wanted to become a journalist as a child, but couldn’t because her father did not want her to follow this path. Alya’s example illustrates the fact that here, it is unusual for women to speak out. Jasmina even says that she doesn’t want her family to listen to her during the radio program, because she feels it is not right.

For these women, the workshop opens a rare space of expression. Sharing a similar situation, they discuss about religion, forgiveness, music and education, allowing us to get a precious insight into displaced women’s life.

Listen here to the integral broadcast :

Translation : Rami

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