Two separate grants from the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) have been supporting grassroots efforts by Iraqi civil society groups to help some of the country’s young people to effect change and overcome disparaging stereotypes of other ethnic and religious groups. Collectively, the two grants—part of USIP’s Iraq Priority Grants program—aim to strengthen the huge but often neglected youth population in ways that can further their ability to participate in a democratic society and promote tolerance and mutual understanding while ethnic and sectarian divisions still plague the country.

One grant supported the efforts of a nongovernmental organization to empower middle and high school students in Baghdad’s violent and impoverished Sadr City to collaborate on peacebuilding projects, some reflecting environmental themes. The other brought together young adults, mostly in their 20s, from four ethnic and religious groups living near each other in the Ninawa Plains in Ninawa Province, giving them opportunities to learn about each other away from the violence and hardened attitudes that have characterized relations among communities in the region they share.

“These two projects made a lot of headway,” said Raya Barazanji, a USIP senior program officer who manages the Iraq Priority Grants program. “We want to invest in young people in Iraq as real agents of change, strengthening youth initiatives and encouraging cooperation among them.”

The first of the projects built on initial United Nations support and worked with 40 students and 10 teachers from 10 schools in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a densely populated, Shiite area in the eastern part of the capital that is home to 2.5 million people. It is the leading stronghold of the hard-line movement and militia led by Muqtada Al-Sadr and has been the scene of considerable violence over recent years. USIP supported an environmentally-focused peacebuilding program through a local NGO called Together to Protect People and the Environment.

The students and teachers received training in conflict resolution and analysis, teamwork and facilitating peaceful responses to disputes. The training, which included small-group sessions on how to develop pro-peacebuilding initiatives they could carry out in Sadr City, was conducted in the relatively peaceful atmosphere of Erbil, in northern Iraq. That setting allowed the organizers to expose the Sadr City participants to a city where tolerance and coexistence have a relatively strong hold. 

The “ambassadors of peace,” ages 12-17, later undertook eight initiatives. A high school for boys and another for girls collaborated on a theatrical play that addressed such issues as tribal settlement practices used in Sadr City, violence against women and the widespread use of children’s toys that resemble actual weapons. The Teachers’ Union and the Baghdad Provincial Council both offered support for replicating the initiative in other troubled areas of Baghdad.

Students from one school created a Peace Mural. And at another school, four plays on social issues, including the role of unemployment in violence, were presented. The school’s principal reported that the experience had an energizing effect, improving the students’ behavior and productivity. At a boys’ high school, the group worked with local authorities to clean up the school’s dirty backyard, fence it off and plant trees and flowers.

One of the 40 students, a high school girl, said of her experience, “Peace begins with us, that’s what I learned from this program.”

Students participating in the program also created two new youth NGOs, Seeds of Peace and Seeds of Hope. The groups hope to take on projects aimed at reducing tensions and easing conflicts in their areas and are expected to receive additional training from the U.N. Population Fund.

“The youth in Sadr City are facing many different challenges,” said Saadiya Hassoon, founder and director of Together. “Students and teachers have already started to take some responsibility toward specific issues surrounding them. After the training workshops, students and teachers are better positioned and well equipped with techniques and education that will enable them to go further in terms of peacebuilding and conflict resolution in their city.”

The other grant project—managed by a local NGO called Development Iraq—involved young people from four ethnic or religious groups in the Ninawa Plains, a rural area of small towns north of the provincial capital Mosul. The province of Ninawa is an unusually diverse mosaic of these groups, all with centuries-old roots in the region. But amid Iraq’s sectarian violence and the insurgency of recent years, those differences were highlighted and manipulated by extremists, stoking discrimination, fear and violence. One effect was to drive out some of the Christians who had been living in Mosul. Said Abdulhakeem Khasro Jawzal, the project director of Development Iraq, “The politics of the region can work against peaceful coexistence, using ethnic symbolism to remind people of their differences rather than their similarities.”

The project began with focus groups totaling 200 people between the ages of 18 and 30. The four groups included one for Yazidis, one for Kurds, one for Christians and one for mostly Sunni Arab Muslims. The groups discussed the negative stereotypes they believe other groups hold about them and the need for multicultural sensitivity.

Next came four roundtables—one for each group—that delved into why others harbor those stereotypes. Yazidis discussed why they are often portrayed as “dirty” and as devil-worshippers by other communities. Later in the project, the Yazidis had a chance to talk about their religion with others, with the result, Jawzal said, that they “debunked several myths about their religion, especially that they pray to the devil. The Yazidis told the other participants that they pray to one god, as in Islam and Christianity.” When the project started, non-Yazidis indicated that they believed the Yazidis could not speak to outsiders about their holy book and that it was even impossible to be friends with Yazidis. Similarly, the project’s visit by Arab, Kurdish and Yazidi young people to a church and monastery at a festival was a breakthrough, correcting the impression they had that they were not welcome in Christian houses of worship.

That festival, in the town of Al Qosh, included musical performances, cultural displays and food from the various communities. After the festival, the groups also performed theatrical role-play exercises that reflect the ethnic and religious antagonisms that have been stoked in Ninawa. Their play, in fact, presented the story of four different groups living in the same area and sharing the land. Titled “Tree of Life,” the play had the premise that each group felt it had a rightful claim to the tree and that other groups would destroy the tree if it were not protected. After a conflict over the tree, the play’s story line had the groups agreeing to share it peacefully.

The Development Iraq project also provided specialized training for five “youth facilitators” from each group who aim to stay active within their own communities. Some have run peacebuilding workshops and supported local NGOs, said Jawzal.

“This project gave young people a safe place to think about these ethnic and religious topics and talk about them. It wasn’t forbidden or taboo,” said Barazanji. “It’s important to their identities as Iraqis to have those conversations, to recognize that they share a common area.”

Added Barazanji, “There’s a lot more work to be done, but it’s a good start.”

Explore Further

• USIP Priority Grant competition
• December 26, 2012 news feature: Vulnerable Iraqi Minorities Making Gains with USIP Help
• May 7, 2013 news feature: Panel at USIP Urges More U.S. Activism in Iraq, Syria