The city of Mosul is devastated.

Hundreds of thousands have fled, with nothing, through a landscape of immense danger. The stories my colleagues and I have heard from the women who somehow survived this journey are heartbreaking. Families who must choose between staying and starving, or fleeing at a high risk of death.  Children abandoned along the route, some run over by tanks.
When they finally arrive at Khazir Camp, they find themselves locked in, forgotten.
Many women we speak to are badly traumatized. They won’t make eye contact, in fear of questions about rape or ISIS fighters. In most cases, their husbands are dead. Some are pregnant. Where can they go? How long can they hide? The fact of their abuse is used as a reason for their own families and tribes to murder or abandon them.

 

These women have been the focus of every ounce of our efforts so far this year, and will continue to be.
Thank you for your continued support,
~ Yanar Mohammed, President, OWFI

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