DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 5.1 million
• Life Expectancy: 70.25 years
• Literacy Rate: 80%
• Religion: Islam
• Official Language: Kurdish, Arabic

Culture

• Kurds make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.
• Meals are generally eaten while sitting on the floor and are served on a small cloth placed in the center of the room.
• Kurdish culture is very communal, in which the interest of a community is more important than that of an individual.
• Family usually consists of more people than the so-called “nuclear” family, often including many generations.

The Goal

The Refuge Initiative (TRI) was launched in order to meet the growing needs stemming from ISIS advances in Northern Iraq and Syria. We build communities of hope through providing homes for refugees in partnership with the local government, coming alongside each refugee family through sponsorship programs, and restoring dignity by building pathways back to independent living through our refugee school and vocational training center, The Refuge.

Building a Refuge

Building a house is one goal, while providing a place of refuge is quite another. The Refuge Initiative develops micro-villages in partnership with the refugees, placing their specific needs first and empowering them with autonomy. The result is the formation of genuine communities of hope. By keeping our villages small (typically 100-150 people in 20 families), we maintain the normal village social structure that most refugees find familiar, greatly minimizing the difficulties of transition, and giving them the strong sense of community that is lost in larger refugee camps.