Publications
Art therapy in West Mosul's Educational Settings
Historical Context, Contemporary Applications and Peacebuilding Capabilities
Sustainable Peace Foundation (SPF) is proud to present its latest study on the transformative role of art therapy in West Mosul’s educational settings. This research underscores how art therapy serves as a crucial tool for emotional healing, cultural integration, and violence prevention among students in conflict-affected areas. By combining the creative process with psychotherapeutic techniques, art therapy offers a non-verbal means for students to process trauma, enhance emotional resilience, and foster social cohesion.
The study was produced as part of SPF's 'Resilient youth' project through the funding of IOM - Iraq within the framework of their Wasl Programme.
The study highlights several key findings:
The study was produced as part of SPF's 'Resilient youth' project through the funding of IOM - Iraq within the framework of their Wasl Programme.
The study highlights several key findings:
- Therapeutic Impact: Art therapy significantly reduces anxiety and depression, improves self-esteem, and enhances communication skills among students.
- Peacebuilding: Through collaborative art projects, art therapy fosters empathy and understanding, bridging divides within divided communities.
- Educational Integration: Educators in West Mosul recognize the value of incorporating art therapy into the curriculum to address diverse learning needs and improve classroom dynamics.
| English: Art therapy in West Mosul's Educational Settings.pdf |
| Arabic: Art therapy in West Mosul's Educational Settings.pdf |
Empowering Youth and Building Resilience Through Sports
Prevention of Violent Extremism in Divided and Conflict-Affected Societies – West Mosul
Sustainable Peace Foundation (SPF) is dedicated to using sports as a transformative tool for preventing violent extremism (PVE) in conflict-affected areas like West Mosul, Iraq. Our comprehensive study explores the significant impact of sports on youth empowerment, social cohesion, and community resilience. By integrating sports into educational settings, we aim to foster essential life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and mutual respect, which are crucial for countering radical ideologies.
The study was produced as part of SPF's 'Resilient youth' project through the funding of IOM - Iraq within the framework of their Wasl Programme.
Key Findings:
SPF’s efforts, such as the ‘Resilient Youth’ and ‘Sports for Peace’ projects, have demonstrated the potential of sports to transform conflict-affected communities. By tailoring these programmes to fit the cultural context of West Mosul and integrating them into school curricula, we aim to ensure their sustainability and effectiveness.
The study was produced as part of SPF's 'Resilient youth' project through the funding of IOM - Iraq within the framework of their Wasl Programme.
Key Findings:
- Psychological and Social Benefits: Sports programmes significantly enhance the psychological well-being of youth, providing a structured outlet for emotional expression and stress relief. These activities promote social skills, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and help rebuild normalcy and stability in their lives.
- Community Engagement: Sports serve as a unifying force, bringing together youths from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. By fostering cooperation and mutual understanding, sports programmes help bridge social divides and contribute to community cohesion.
- Resilience Building: Participation in sports instills resilience in young individuals, teaching them perseverance, teamwork, and leadership. These qualities are essential for personal development and societal stability, helping youth to recover from adversities and contribute positively to their communities.
SPF’s efforts, such as the ‘Resilient Youth’ and ‘Sports for Peace’ projects, have demonstrated the potential of sports to transform conflict-affected communities. By tailoring these programmes to fit the cultural context of West Mosul and integrating them into school curricula, we aim to ensure their sustainability and effectiveness.
| English: Empowering Youth and Building Resilience Through Sports.pdf |
| Arabic: Empowering Youth and Building Resilience Through Sports.pdf |
SExtortion in East and west Mosul district
Sustainable Peace Foundation (SPF) is at the forefront of tackling sextortion in Mosul, Iraq, a pressing issue that disproportionately affects women and girls. Our recent report highlights the alarming rise of sextortion, revealing severe psychological, social, and economic impacts on victims. Despite its prevalence, existing legal frameworks in Iraq lack specific provisions to address this crime effectively. SPF advocates for comprehensive legal reforms, including amendments to the Iraqi Penal Code and Cybercrime Draft Law to explicitly criminalise sextortion and increase penalties for sexual exploitation.
To combat this issue, SPF emphasises the need for specialised training for law enforcement, public awareness campaigns, and robust support systems for victims. By fostering collaboration with government agencies, civil society organisations, and international partners, we aim to create a safer, more equitable environment for all Iraqis. Join us in our mission to build a peaceful and just society where gender equity and the rule of law are upheld.
To combat this issue, SPF emphasises the need for specialised training for law enforcement, public awareness campaigns, and robust support systems for victims. By fostering collaboration with government agencies, civil society organisations, and international partners, we aim to create a safer, more equitable environment for all Iraqis. Join us in our mission to build a peaceful and just society where gender equity and the rule of law are upheld.
| English: Sextortion in East and west Mosul district.pdf |
| Arabic: Sextortion in East and west Mosul district.pdf |
Peace Kaleidoscope
Young men and women providing counter narratives to Extremisms and Hatred
If we do a quick scan on the various internet search engines (Google for example) for Mosul or Nineveh, the results will display a blurry image including "terrorism, ISIS, slaughter, explosions, hatred, violence, divorce, poverty, conflicts, divisions," and other negative topics. However, after the liberation of Nineveh, it gradually started to recover from all these negative stereotypes, especially after its liberation from ISIS control in 2017. We have witnessed many positive developments and seen young people contributing to reviving life in Nineveh Governorate, encouraging everyone to show joy, smiles, and promoting women's rights in society. We have also seen women leaders after being deprived of everything due to the oppressive policies used by Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Therefore, it is time to fill search engines with these positive issues and diversity and coexistence in Nineveh Governorate after its recovery, and not to allow negative news to give a negative impression of our province and country to foreigners. If they wanted to search for Nineveh or Iraq, they would find all the realistic positivity in Nineveh and Iraq. This responsibility falls on writers, journalists, and individuals who can reflect this creatively in their writings.
We have contributed to selecting participants in this workshop and the initiative as a whole with care. We received more than three hundred requests to participate in the peace initiative, but we shortlisted applicants and interviewed the people who provided their data and information. Once the successful candidates were selected, the training began. Thus, based on the creative writing workshop, the capacitated youth are presenting you here with creative writings that reflect real life stories of resilience and cohesiveness. Even though it is their first-time writing stories, articles, and blogs that provide counter narratives to extremism, hatred through stories that promote peace, coexistence, and positive stories that existed and continue to exist to this very day.
As Sustainable Peace Foundation, an Iraqi non-governmental feminist organisation established in 2019, we strive diligently to build and preserve peace through participatory, vertical, horizontal, and grassroots approaches, to restore and strengthen the lost trust between diverse ethnic and religious social groups in Iraq, to empower and build the capacities of severely affected communities, with a central focus on marginalised groups of Iraq’s social fabric - such as women, girls, youth, and minorities - so they can reduce social tensions and mitigate and transform conflicts through dialogue and non-violent means, by developing, designing, and implementing programmes in social cohesion, peacebuilding, and other salient issues, such as climate change and environmental justice through integrated approaches, without losing focus on our core goals and objectives.
We have contributed to selecting participants in this workshop and the initiative as a whole with care. We received more than three hundred requests to participate in the peace initiative, but we shortlisted applicants and interviewed the people who provided their data and information. Once the successful candidates were selected, the training began. Thus, based on the creative writing workshop, the capacitated youth are presenting you here with creative writings that reflect real life stories of resilience and cohesiveness. Even though it is their first-time writing stories, articles, and blogs that provide counter narratives to extremism, hatred through stories that promote peace, coexistence, and positive stories that existed and continue to exist to this very day.
As Sustainable Peace Foundation, an Iraqi non-governmental feminist organisation established in 2019, we strive diligently to build and preserve peace through participatory, vertical, horizontal, and grassroots approaches, to restore and strengthen the lost trust between diverse ethnic and religious social groups in Iraq, to empower and build the capacities of severely affected communities, with a central focus on marginalised groups of Iraq’s social fabric - such as women, girls, youth, and minorities - so they can reduce social tensions and mitigate and transform conflicts through dialogue and non-violent means, by developing, designing, and implementing programmes in social cohesion, peacebuilding, and other salient issues, such as climate change and environmental justice through integrated approaches, without losing focus on our core goals and objectives.
| Peace Kaleidoscope - Arabic |
Our schools, our Responsibilities
Reducing the VE Drivers in Jalawlaa and Muqdadiyya's Education Facilities
This report is based on a Deep Assessment (DA) conducted by three partnering organisations operating as a consortium, namely, Iraqi Institute for Development (IID), Sustainable Peace Foundation (SPF) and Hawaa Organisation for Relief and Development within the framework of the ‘Our Schools, Our Responsibility: United in Reducing VE Drivers in Jalawlaa’s and Muqdadiyya’s Education Facilities, funded by GIZ’s SILM Fund: the assessment was conducted in Diyala’s Muqdadiyya district and Jalawlaa sub-districts’ education facilities.
The DA was conducted in April and May of 2022 in selected secondary and primary schools in Muqdadiyya district and Jalawlaa sub-district. The DA targeted 12 schools in total: 3 secondary schools and 1 high school in Muqdadiyya, 8 primary schools (4 in Muqdadiyya and 4 in Jalawlaa).
The objective of the DA was to elicit qualitative data and an in-depth understanding of the drivers of VE – both push and pull factors; the schools’ strategy in mitigating these drivers; the drivers to physical violence as well as extremist ideas, which seek to exploit societal, ethnic, and religious tensions in order to marginalise or disfranchise sub-identities and social groups; the methods used by these schools to mitigate the repercussions of structural violence i.e. culturally imbedded violence on their respective students; the schools’ strategy in mitigating the effects of inter and intra community grievances and distrust on their respective students; and the government’s role along with that of the civil society in addressing the drivers that lead to VE within the schools and their respective catchment areas.
The stakeholders who participated in the DA included: primary school students, secondary and high school students, school managements and teaching staff, members of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), local community leaders, general directors of the Directorate of Education (DoE) in Muqdadiyya and Jalawlaa, ONSA’s national committee members in Diyala; and Local and International Non-Governmental Organisations (LNGOs and INGOs) active in the targeted area.
Primary findings with respect to VE drivers among the students at the targeted schools
- Inequitable provision of job opportunities;
- Favouritism and nepotism;
- Marginalisation of one social groups and favouriting the other;
- High rate of unemployment;
- Unfair and inequitable government policies and treatment of Diyala’s ethno-religious communities;
- Political exclusion of certain ethno-religious groups.
Stakeholders underlined the following as contributing factors to increasing student resilience to VE:
- Sports, cultural activities held by the schools can contribute positively to student resilience if they engage pupils of different ethno-religious communities;
- Teacher-student dialogues sessions that result in a more comprehensive understanding of issues that students prioritise and the primary factors that may lead some of them to resort to violent extremist ideas and/or practice violent extremist behaviours;
- Governmental institutions, (L)NGOs and (I)NGOs too have a positive role to play in preventing VE by rehabilitating more schools in the destructed areas, developing and designing projects aiming to raise the economic and living standards of poor and financially vulnerable families in post-conflict ethnic areas i.e., designing integrated programmes, which include the soft and hard component approach.
The DA was conducted in April and May of 2022 in selected secondary and primary schools in Muqdadiyya district and Jalawlaa sub-district. The DA targeted 12 schools in total: 3 secondary schools and 1 high school in Muqdadiyya, 8 primary schools (4 in Muqdadiyya and 4 in Jalawlaa).
The objective of the DA was to elicit qualitative data and an in-depth understanding of the drivers of VE – both push and pull factors; the schools’ strategy in mitigating these drivers; the drivers to physical violence as well as extremist ideas, which seek to exploit societal, ethnic, and religious tensions in order to marginalise or disfranchise sub-identities and social groups; the methods used by these schools to mitigate the repercussions of structural violence i.e. culturally imbedded violence on their respective students; the schools’ strategy in mitigating the effects of inter and intra community grievances and distrust on their respective students; and the government’s role along with that of the civil society in addressing the drivers that lead to VE within the schools and their respective catchment areas.
The stakeholders who participated in the DA included: primary school students, secondary and high school students, school managements and teaching staff, members of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), local community leaders, general directors of the Directorate of Education (DoE) in Muqdadiyya and Jalawlaa, ONSA’s national committee members in Diyala; and Local and International Non-Governmental Organisations (LNGOs and INGOs) active in the targeted area.
Primary findings with respect to VE drivers among the students at the targeted schools
- Inequitable provision of job opportunities;
- Favouritism and nepotism;
- Marginalisation of one social groups and favouriting the other;
- High rate of unemployment;
- Unfair and inequitable government policies and treatment of Diyala’s ethno-religious communities;
- Political exclusion of certain ethno-religious groups.
Stakeholders underlined the following as contributing factors to increasing student resilience to VE:
- Sports, cultural activities held by the schools can contribute positively to student resilience if they engage pupils of different ethno-religious communities;
- Teacher-student dialogues sessions that result in a more comprehensive understanding of issues that students prioritise and the primary factors that may lead some of them to resort to violent extremist ideas and/or practice violent extremist behaviours;
- Governmental institutions, (L)NGOs and (I)NGOs too have a positive role to play in preventing VE by rehabilitating more schools in the destructed areas, developing and designing projects aiming to raise the economic and living standards of poor and financially vulnerable families in post-conflict ethnic areas i.e., designing integrated programmes, which include the soft and hard component approach.
| English - Our Responsibility: Reducing VE Drivers in Jalawlaa and Muqdadiyya’s Education Facilities |
| Arabic - Our Responsibility: Reducing VE Drivers in Jalawlaa and Muqdadiyya’s Education Facilities |