Podcast Collective

Youth Speak is working with young activists who have stories to tell and ideas to share to create a podcast. This podcast will be a pathway through which youth can speak on community issues that matter to them, interview experts, and offer ideas to make society a more equitable society. This project is supported by Terre Des Hommes - Germany.

BIO-GAS DIGESTER

With support from Terre Des Hommes - Germany and a leading expert in biogas technology from Baghdad, Youth Speak has trained young people in building a biogas digester and developed the first sample of one that is used at the youth center as proof of concept. In order to ensure that this technology is widely accessible, the team also created a DIY video laying out the steps of building a digester, how to feed it, and common problems and their solutions. 

“our stories” audiobook initiative

A new generation of young people in the region are educated primarily in Kurdish, and are interested in supporting up and coming local writers who can speak to the stories of the modern era in the diversity of languages and dialects read by young people today. However, despite this interest in supporting local writers, young people in KRI are, like youth around the world, highly connected to the internet and increasingly less likely to pick up and read a physical book. Instead, interest in audiobook formats is growing, but access, particularly for Kurdish literature, is extremely limited. Youth Speak, with support from Ideas Beyond Borders, is working with local authors and voice actors to create a library of accessible audiobooks in local languages.

SUPPORTING ALTERNATIVES TO VIOLENCE PROJECT NETWORK IN IRAQ AND KURDISTAN

This program was funded by Mennonite Central Committee, and involved providing a network of 38 peacebuilding activists in Duhok, Ninewa Plains, and Sulaymaniyah with the skills to self-organize and remain sustainable as an all-volunteer youth network. The volunteers are approximately 60% female, and the project focuses on peacebuilding, trauma healing, advocacy and awareness raising, and youth empowerment.  The participants in this project come from a wide array of religious, ethnic, and residential status’. 

Designing community solutions

This project, which was was funded by the University of Ottawa’s Community Mobilization in Crisis program in partnership with Open Society Foundations, included a five week course for 12 youth (4 refugee, 4 IDP, and 4 host community, 50% male/female) to learn advocacy and awareness raising skills to apply to peacebuilding and youth and women’s empowerment initiatives. The course provided youth with the skills to design and implement initiatives that did not rely on outside funding or NGO support, but that instead relied on mutual aid, community material and human assets, and creative problem solving to complete their initiatives. From this course, five initiatives were designed and executed in Duhok, Domiz Camp, and Kabartu Camp.

AVP AND CASCADE TRAININGS

This project was funded by Lutheran World Federation and Church of Sweden. The project involved training six Youth Speak volunteers (3 male, 3 female from refugee and host community backgrounds) in the Alternatives to Violence Project curriculum, and upon their completion, providing an opportunity for those volunteers to practice their newfound facilitation skills by conducting cascade training for youth interested in becoming peacebuilding activists. The trainings were attended by 60 youth from diverse religious and residential status’ in Duhok (40 female, 20 male), and provided skills designed specifically to empower people even from marginalized communities (such as youth and women) with peacebuilding skills, advocacy skills, and awareness raising skills. Additionally, the Alternatives to Violence Project takes an approach to peacebuilding that understands that a lack of peace is often rooted in personal and generational trauma, and one cannot be holistically addressed without the other.    

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND SPORTS

Youth Speak partnered with Run and Madre Organization to train young female athletes from IDP and refugee backgrounds in Erbil on how to apply the leadership skills they have gained through sports to community initiatives. With a focus on advocacy and awareness raising, this program aimed to empower women and youth to take meaningful positive action to promote healthy communities.

RIDING FOR PEACE, FREEDOM, AND RIGHTS

Biking is common among young children in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, but once youth reach adolescence, most have given up on biking either as a pastime or as a mode of transportation. In partnership with IOM and 12 local organizations, this project granted young women increased access to public spaces, as well as access to exercise as a mode of psychosocial and physical wellbeing and the opportunity to meet young women from all different backgrounds during bike training and large community-wide biking events. To learn more about this initiative, click here.

UPCYCLING WORKSHOPS

This project is supported by Terre Des Hommes - Germany and provided youth with the opportunity to gain skills in recycling and upcycling household materials, as well as to teach peers skills in the same, with the aim to promote environmental awareness and decrease waste. Seven upcycling workshops took place, teaching young people how to reuse clothing, paper goods, household items, tires, and pallets. Each workshop was led by a young person for other young people, giving the facilitator the opportunity to develop teaching skills as well as provide the opportunity to reduce waste in the community. 

LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES

With support from the Violet Jabara Charitable Trust, Youth Speak partnered with local youth artists, writers, and readers in Duhok and surrounding IDP and refugee camps to design and install 20 Little Free Libraries. Each Little Library is being designed by a local youth artist, and Youth Speak is hosting a series of literacy events, including book exchanges, slam poetry events, and zine making workshops to develop local, contextualized access to books and opportunities for free expression.

SOLIYA CONNECT PROGRAM

As part of their mentorship training, Youth Speak partnered with Soliya to provide young people in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq training in 21st Century skills such as critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, and media literacy through Soliya's flagship program, Connect. The Connect Program allows young people the opportunity to engage with their peers across the globe on community issues through Soliya's online platform. Youth Speak then worked with program participants to integrate and adapt the skills they learned through Connect into their community projects, providing them hands-on opportunities to put those skills to use in their everyday lives and community activism.