Halajba is one of the towns in Kurdistan whom have suffered more than others under the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was also one of the towns that were attacked with poison in 1988.
The poison attack killed around 50.000 inhabitants and traumatised a whole region. Nowadays the town is rebuilt, but the wounds are still there. Many families lost many members in the attacks, and people have been destroyed for the rest of their lives.
In this atmosphere Amaz Center remains like a little oasis. The Kurdish – Swedish woman Avaz, whom founded the Amaz Center, used all her savings and her free time to build it up.
Today with financial help from the Swedish organisation Kvinner -til –Kvinner (Women –to – Women) the center is employing four young local women to run the activities. Over time the center has developed activities for women, such as swimming, driving lessons, theatre, sport activities and much more.
Halabja is a quite conservative town, and giving women the opportunity to take driving lessons is a small revolution.
In cooperation with Kvinner til Kvinner, the NCPD gave a training course in communication and dialogue for the staff. In the evaluation the staff pointed out that they need this kind of training, as it’s useful both for handling conflicts in their community, and also for supporting the users of Amaz Center in their daily life struggle.
-Christiane Seehausen