Three years after the end of military operations, Iraq is still unable to find stability and provide a dignified life for its inhabitants. The conflict has disrupted the population’s access to basic services and depleted their livelihoods.
Millions of people have had to leave their homes in recent years, many have been unable to return, and those who have returned have often found their places of origin destroyed. The most fragile are the women left alone who, besides having in many cases several dependent children, are victims of abuse and violence.
In addition to the dramas linked to the conflict and the pandemic, there is a chronic shortage of water in the country. In the districts of Shirqat, Baiji and Balad (Salah al-Din governorate), where almost 90% of the families have limited or inadequate access to sanitary facilities, COOPI Suisse is building prefabricated latrines in several villages. In addition to providing these communities – which were completely lacking – with functioning sanitary facilities, thanks to some construction shrewdness the latrines also raise the level of protection and privacy for single women. The project directly involves 63 people – 29 of them women – and will have a positive impact on more than 17,000 people living in 6 villages.
In Iraq, COOPI Suisse has also been promoting the return to school of children and adolescents for several years. As of 2018 – with a project supported by partner Nina Ravelli – COOPI Suisse has supported more than 7,000 children and young people to start or resume schooling blocked during the years of war and in refugee camps.
In the governorate of Salah al-Din – where some 300,000 children have still not been able to resume their education – we helped 1,309 students in the sensitive age group of 6 to 14 years to return to school in 2021.
