Supporting Syrian refugees in Iraq

End of An Era: Peace Winds’ Work with Syrian Refugees in Iraq Comes to a Close

Peace Winds is one of the thousands of organizations that had their funding terminated by the U.S. government–in our case, for our core program supporting Syrian refugees seeking safe haven in northern Iraq, as well as forcibly displaced persons from other parts of Iraq. Our work provided shelter, safety, and opportunities to become self-reliant, less dependent on aid, and integrated into the local community.

Since 2018, our team has been an integral part of the refugee community in seven camps in the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq that are home to refugees who fled the brutal civil war in Syria. More recently, we began work in the many camps for displaced Iraqis who fled Islamic State. We worked to ensure that refugees–especially those with disabilities–have access to safe, accessible shelter, as well as work opportunities to support their families, and we managed to touch the lives of more than 108,000 men, women, and children during the past seven years. 

The Right to Safe Shelter

Our terminated project was the latest in a commitment to supporting Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqis that began in 2018. Peace Winds spent the first two years building safe and secure homes to replace the tents that refugees had been living in. This ensured that vulnerable families had proper electricity and plumbing and their homes were better equipped to withstand the harsh weather of Iraq. This has been especially crucial for multi-generational families living together in cramped spaces in a climate where summer temperatures reach well over 100, and the rainy season comes twice a year. The homes of 1,493 refugee families were upgraded in these first two years to permanent, concrete block houses.

Amal and her four children fled to Iraq from their home in Syria in 2011. After her husband died in a fall from a building, Amal was widowed and became her family’s sole provider. 

“We suffered a lot at the beginning,” she said, “living in tents that leaked, and there’s a lack of job opportunities. The most difficult thing was, when we first arrived at the camp, there was no water, no electricity, the mud was up to our knees. We were carrying water in jerrycans over long distances. We tried upgrading our tent roof by using iron sheets, but it was still leaking water, until Peace Winds provided assistance to upgrade our shelter.”

Innovative Cash-for-Work Model

Amal and her adult sons completed much of the construction work themselves through Peace Winds’ unique cash-for-work program. The program teaches refugees how to perform the work under the guidance of our local engineers, step-by-step. They receive payment for their work, learn new skills, and are more invested in maintaining their homes in the long term. Their new skills can lead to other income opportunities and allow them to repair and maintain their own homes. Since 2018, 17,097 refugees have worked as short-term laborers through this program.

“Without your help, it might have taken us 10 years to upgrade this shelter,” Amal said about the process. “And I will never forget your assistance. Many thanks to you.” Amal also used some of the extra money she earned to open a small shop at her home, which helped her continue to earn a living.

Accessibility and Independence for Refugees with Disabilities

Later, when most residents of the Syrian refugee camps had safe, permanent shelters, Peace Winds shifted the focus of construction upgrades to prioritize accessibility for persons with disabilities and older persons. A disproportionately high number of refugees have disabilities, which is no surprise given that they fled a warzone and have limited medical care. Home modifications for families with persons with disabilities included wheelchair ramps, bathroom handrails, handicap-accessible latrines and showers. These were paired with other accessibility upgrades to public spaces in the camps. Together, they have vastly improved safety and independence for people in wheelchairs, senior citizens, and others with limited mobility, while lightening the caregiving responsibility of families so that they can focus on work or school. 

As a result, 3,628 Syrian refugee families now live in homes that are safe and accessible for family members with disabilities. Peace Winds also completed a total of 142 construction projects to make public spaces in the camps, such as schools, mosques, and health centers, more accessible.

Livelihood Opportunities for Everyone

Alongside the cash-for-work program, Peace Winds prioritized vocational training and work opportunities for Syrian refugees by establishing vocational centers in each of the seven camps, which we ran in partnership with the local organization the Barzani Charity Foundation. These facilities allowed refugees to take courses in topics such as welding, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, and other construction-related areas, a growing industry in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A total of 8,179 refugees participated in these training sessions, and 2,360 of them were women.

Peace Winds is committed to increasing opportunities for women. Many are the heads of their household or live with men who cannot work, leaving them to support their family. But they often have a more difficult time entering the workforce than their male counterparts. 

Roughly half of Peace Winds’ staff in Iraq were women–including engineers, refugee coordinators, and vocational training instructors. Many have also been refugees. Some women in the camps were reluctant at first to break into a traditionally male-dominated field, but seeing other women like them represented in leadership positions encouraged them to try participating in training courses and cash-for-work employment. Our staff also worked with refugee women to tailor courses to their specific needs and interests, and we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants about how empowering the experience was.

In 2022, Peace Winds also piloted vocational training specifically designed for trainees with disabilities. The program was a huge success–not only did it help an under-represented group gain hands-on experience and skills, but participants also reported that training served as a form of occupational therapy. Out of the 403 courses we have held since then, 159 were specifically geared toward refugees with disabilities.

Tool Lending Libraries

As part of the vocational centers, Peace Winds’ tool centers also allowed refugees to borrow tools free of charge, which they often used to work on household repairs or personal projects. Because the centers are located right inside the camps, refugees saved time and money they would otherwise use to rent tools from facilities in neighboring cities.

“The tool center has helped us by loaning us many construction tools [for our home],” said Faryal, a refugee who fled her home in Qamishli, Syria in 2012 and now lives in Iraq with her husband and six children. “I’ve used wheelbarrows, shovels, gloves, and many other tools.” 

She told us that the tools were particularly helpful to her husband, who worked as a day laborer. “His work is unstable, and we don’t have the capacity to rent tools outside the camp. We’re thankful to Peace Winds for providing them to us. Now my cousin is helping me build a garden [with tools from the tool center].”

More than 84,000 refugees borrowed tools from Peace Winds’ tool centers over the last seven years, with roughly 3,500 people borrowing 10,000 tools each month by early 2025.

Impact of U.S. Funding Cuts

Peace Winds’ work has proven so successful in equipping refugees to stand on their own and so popular with the local communities that we were asked to expand the program last fall. In addition to the seven Syrian refugee camps, the local government encouraged us to begin working in four camps for internally displaced Yezidi Iraqis, who fled genocide and religious persecution by Islamic State. We had laid the groundwork to expand vocational training, cash-for-work opportunities, and apprenticeships with employers for both refugees and displaced Yezidis, but that came to a sudden halt with the U.S. funding freeze. As a result, on May 22, we were forced to close our main offices in Erbil in Duhok and officially wind down most of our activities in Iraq. 

Had our program not been shuttered, Peace Winds would have been able to support more than 40,000 Syrian refugees and Yezidi Iraqis by September 2026. That would have included 3,200 men and women enrolled in vocational training and apprenticeships, in addition to 600 individuals who would have been employed as short-term laborers by completing about 250 new construction projects to increase accessibility in the camps. 

Another, more unfortunate impact is that more than 70 staff who were directly or indirectly employed on the program—many of them refugees themselves—have lost their livelihoods. Peace Winds has scaled back from roughly 35 full-time direct hires to a handful of staff in Duhok and closed our Erbil office. 

Staff who remain in Iraq will continue to carry out a few small initiatives supported by other donors as we work to scale back up our programming. Other initiatives include a program to create work opportunities, revitalize infrastructure, and mitigate environmental destruction in Mosul, where many Iraqis are returning after the violent invasion by Islamic State. New donations to this GlobalGiving fundraiser will support activities like these.

We appreciate the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and its tireless staff for entrusting us with U.S. funding over these seven years. Their support enabled work that improved 100,000+ refugees’ lives while greatly advancing the long-term national interests of the United States in a stable and prosperous region. Similarly, we appreciate the generosity of donors who have supported our work in Iraq through GlobalGiving and elsewhere. Your contributions have enabled us to host sports and culture initiatives for refugee youth, aid recovery after a fire struck a camp for displaced Iraqis, and distribute wheelchairs to refugees in need.

We are also deeply grateful to our partners at the Barzani Charity Foundation for teaching us so much and for helping us create so many opportunities for the last seven years. Most importantly, we thank our dedicated and talented colleagues who poured their hearts into their work but now have lost their jobs serving their community, including our Iraq country director, Andrew Wietecha, who led them through this difficult time.

Links:

• Hear Amal's story on YouTube
• Hear Faryal's story on YouTube