Support Families and Animals at the Healing Garden

PRESS RELEASE / EMERGENCY APPEAL

For Immediate Release

Flood Devastates Jiyan Foundation’s Healing Garden in Chamchamal – Urgent Support Needed

Chamchamal, Kurdistan Region – Iraq — December 9, 2025

The Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights is deeply saddened to announce that unprecedented rainfall-induced severe flooding has devastated the Healing Garden in Chamchamal. 

This unique sanctuary—home to trauma therapy programs, environmental education, and animal-assisted rehabilitation—has suffered extensive destruction. The flooding submerged several therapy rooms and facilities, ruined essential equipment and materials, and severely damaged large sections of the garden's infrastructure. Tragically, the event happened too rapidly, and our team was not able to save all the birds that support our therapeutic activities.

Early assessments indicate significant losses and damages in equipment and machinery. These include our biogas unit, greywater treatment facility, solar water pathways, and irrigation network. Trees, plants, and green learning spaces have been destroyed, interrupting vital nature-based healing programmes for survivors of genocide, war, gender-based violence, and domestic violence.

For nearly a decade, the Healing Garden has provided a safe and peaceful environment where women, children, and families in Chamchamal—many of them survivors of the Anfal Genocide (1986–1989) and ongoing conflict—receive trauma-informed care, animal-assisted therapy, and empowerment programs. Today, this place of healing urgently needs its own support.

As we enter the Christmas and New Year season—a time of generosity, hope, and compassion—we call on our global community to stand with us. Your support can help rebuild what was lost and restore a sanctuary relied upon by hundreds of survivors.We urgently appeal to our community, partners, and supporters worldwide for assistance.

Your contribution will help us:

• Ensure uninterrupted support for hundreds of survivors who depend on our services
• Repair flood-damaged buildings and therapy rooms
• Restore the biogas, solar power and water treatment systems
• Replace essential therapy equipment and materials
• Rebuild damaged agricultural and ecotherapy areas
• Care for surviving animals

Every donation—large or small—directly supports the recovery of a space that has transformed countless lives.

Links:

• PRESS RELEASE / EMERGENCY APPEAL

Dear Friends,

At the Jiyan Foundation’s Healing Garden in Chamchamal, healing goes beyond therapy — it extends to the land, the trees, and the animals that share this peaceful space. Thanks to your support, we continue to create a place where survivors of war and trauma reconnect with nature and rediscover calm, dignity, and hope.

Over the past two years, our Healing Garden has become a living symbol of recovery and sustainability. With your help, we have:

• Planted more than 9,700 trees, creating shade, oxygen, and a nurturing landscape for survivors and local wildlife.

• Installed a greywater treatment system and biogas unit to meet daily needs, making the garden self-sustaining and eco-friendly.

• Cared for rescued animals — dogs, donkeys, and birds — that bring joy and comfort to our clients, helping them rebuild trust and empathy through animal-assisted therapy.

• Welcomed hundreds of women and children to participate in trauma therapy and psychosocial sessions surrounded by nature.

For many survivors, the Healing Garden is more than a therapy space—it’s a place to breathe again. As one participant shared,

“When I plant a tree here, it feels like planting a piece of peace in my heart.”

This year, we also connected the Garden to clean energy sources, reducing CO emissions and setting an example for sustainable recovery in the region. Every element — the trees, the water, the animals, and the people — now works together to support both mental and environmental healing.

Your generosity makes this work possible. By supporting the Healing Garden, you are nurturing both human recovery and ecological renewal — helping people and nature heal side by side.

Thank you for continuing to believe in this vision. Together, we are growing more than trees — we are growing hope.

With gratitude,

The Jiyan Foundation Team

Learn more in our Biannual Report 2023–2024:

Read & downloadhere.e

Links:

• Publications

• Jiyan Foundation Biannual report 2023-24 (PDF)