Program: Educational Center

Location: Shariya Refugee Camp, Duhok, North Iraq

Budget: € 125 000

Timeline: May 2019

Project description

In post-ISIS Iraq about two million people are internally displaced. The Shariya camp in Duhok alone harbors thousands of Yezidis who have fled the forces of ISIS. In total, this camp accommodates 20,000 people, at least 9,000 of whom are children.

Panaga NGO makes an effort to develop and provide educational services in Kurdistan. They commit themselves to organize the support of the children through therapeutic programs of art, drama, play therapy, and pop-up schools. Unfortunately, there are no proper educational spaces and the infrastructure that is available is unsafe. That’s where Maggie Program comes in.

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Partners

Day 1

After a long day of traveling yesterday, we finally arrived in Yezidi. Today the first activity was happening on site. We split our team into two parts, Team 1 went straight ahead prepping the site.

Team 1 started with coordinating the ground preparation and positioning with cords and poles where the Maggie’s will come on the plot. Lucky for us, heavy machinery (like the gorgeous bulldozer seen in the pictures) and local contractors are not as hard to come by as when we were working in the middle of the rainforest in Cameroon last summer.

Teamleader of team 1, Karolien, used all her civil engineering skills to shape the terrain into a flat surface. While one of our other team members, Karel, got overwhelmed by curious kids while using his trained eye to make sure all the corners were level.

In the meantime, Maxim was taking a nap in between the 140 cubs of expanded clay pebbles, which will soon be the wall fillings of the Maggie. Our host and partner Zirak Hameed made sure the team had everything they need.

Day 2

Today was all about positioning the Maggie’s and about positioning Maggie's foundation stripes. Because of the collaborations with the community, the task was fun and quick.

After a month of roaming around the sea, the Maggie container was finally cleared by customs today at the Turkish side of the Khalil border. Fingers crossed that it’ll arrive on-site tomorrow. Not a day too early!

Day 3

We’re rocking & rolling today. We’ve emptied the container while collaborating with the locals. The first concrete has been poured (Karolien’s favorite hobby so she was definitely excited!)

Afterward, we enjoyed our welcome party thrown by the community and ended the day with a fresh, cold beer.

Ps. : Kurdistan is fantastic and the people are so nice!

Day 4

Today was a very productive day! We’ve achieved way more than we expected. The first Maggie, also the largest one, is starting to take shape. We’ve already had the first visitors exploring the huge new space, daydreaming of what will come. Every day we meet more and more people, really becoming part of the community.

Afterward, we visited Duhok and had some beers there.

Day 5

Today was a slow day. It was Yawm Al Jumaa, so only the Maggie volunteers were working today.

At noon we were invited for a delicious lunch (best Biryani ever) at Ziraks’ place, together with his parents, family, and friends.

The weather was very rainy this afternoon. We felt right at home.

Day 6

It seems like we just counted to three and wow… There are Maggie’s!

We’d had a top day at Sharya town. Everybody really came into themselves and preferred specialty.

Karolien and Matthias leveled and fine-tuned the new Maggie’s while Pieter and Benjamin did all the heavy structural work. Maxime and Karel, in the meantime, loved to close up the walls and do the profiling. And of course, last but not least, our numerous new Yezidi friends are helping out a great deal to get this center ready. Even the kids that will attend the Maggie school in the future, helped fill up the walls with clay pebbles and other tasks. It’s truly amazing how smart and handy these kids are!

Day 7

Wow….suddenly 1…,2…,3 Maggies !!
Top day at Sharya town. Everybody found his full power & drive and preferred speciality. Karolien and Matthias level and fine tune the new Maggie’s, Pieter & Benjamin do the heavy structural works and Maxime and Karel love to close the walls and do the profiling. And off course our numerous new Yezidi friends who help us out to get this center ready. Even the future kids that will attend to the Maggie school help filling the walls with clay pebbles and doing some small assemblies. Amazing how smart and handy these kids are.

Sunny greetings from Kurdistan !

Day 8

Technical day ! Some of us (without saying names) were secretly longing for this phase. Electrical sockets, underfloor heating (special thx to our young friend Eyem), circular experiments and finally…stuffing our Maggie with the clay pebbles so she becomes the safe, insulated, cosy and sturdy building she is ment to be. The day ended with an initiation of Kurdish shoulder hopping dances in Maggie 2, blessing the maggies with 3 lucky eggs and a first sticker on the wall.

Ps…yes…Karolien wares always a 13/17 mounting tool in her back pocket.

Stay tuned !
Maggie team

Day 9

Today was all about solo work and special poses to get it fixed. Glad we brought 120 Maggie T-Shirts to get messy no matter what. We are on a mission Also a high visit from JCC Duhok, who arranged all our custom clearance preparation last month. And finally…a Kebab in Duhok. Unfortunately no beer at the kiosk.

Sleep tight!

Day 10

Finally…we have doors! Maggie is starting to feel like a safe haven. After 10 days of working between hundreds of curious children, we can hide away once in a while in the belly of Maggie 1. Maggie 2 and 3 are growing and the underfloor heating is connected by the one and only Pieter S. After a long day Hayat & Fares are welcoming us with a delicious rice pudding as always!

Chears!

Day 11

What began as an exhausting day with almost every little muscle cracking and hurting, ended up with great satisfaction. Maggie 2 and 3 are wrapped up, Maggie 1 is stuffed and locked and again lunch was fantastic. This time Barzan was our host in his lovely house. First time with a couch !! As always Karolien fell a sleep on the soft Kurdish pillows. And last but not least…dinner especially custom made for Karel who only likes french fries and mayonnaise.

Day 12

Happy Birthday Lotte !
Today was special that’s for sure.
Matthias cooked his signature dish Ragu alla Bolognaise for our Yezidi friends and the Maggie team. I never saw a cooking pot being emptied so quickly. At night a surprise party was organised in Maggie 1 and finally some fish and dancing on Duhok mountain with a gorgeous view.
And yes…Maggie 2 and 3 are stuffed and the underfloor is shining !

Good vibes…

Day 13

The end is coming near. Time for some checks
– underfloor heating Maggie 1, 2, 3: done
– flooring Maggie 1,2,3: done
– filling the walls and floor with expanded clay pebbles: done
– 40 ft container almost empty…hallelujah
– doors : done
– roof insulation: tomorrow
– electricity: 60% done
– small finishing: t.b.c.

It will definitely be a heavy last mile as always, but the maggie team pushes through !

Day 14

Yipikajee…a holiday. At least for 5 hours…
The Maggie team needed some battery recharging after 11 days non stop working and we were desperately longing for some sightseeing in this gorgeous Kurdistan region. While our touristic guide Zirak showed us around, construction site chef Daxel and his Yezidi team filled the Maggie roofs with mineral wool insulation. Not the most fun work to do, sorry for that guys. In the afternoon slijpschijfman Pieter had the thrill of his life with cutting a piece out of the container for the final electrical connection to the street.
And last but not least…a fantastic barbecue from Hayat and Fares.

Toedeloe

Day 15

And so it ends…at least for half of the Maggie team. Matthias, Pieter and Maxim and our favourite film crew Lisa and Lotte are heading back to Belgium tomorrow morning. Karolien, Karel and Benjamin will stay another few days to do some final finishing. We started up the heating and cooling pump today, prepared some electricity and last but not least had a visit of some of the Panaga kids that will attend the Maggie school.

Have a save journey to Belgium Maggie team 2.
Thx again for your hard work and great spirit.

Day 16

And so it ends…at least for half of the Maggie team. Matthias, Pieter and Maxim and our favourite film crew Lisa and Lotte are heading back to Belgium tomorrow morning. Karolien, Karel and Benjamin will stay another few days to do some final finishing. We started up the heating- and cooling pump today, prepared some electricity and last but not least had a visit of some of the Panaga kids that will attend the Maggie school.

Have a save journey to Belgium Maggie team 2.
Thx again for your hard work and great spirit.

Day 17

Damn damn damn. What a amount of insulation for Maggie. Wearing sweaters and gas masks in 35 degrees and filling 18 triangles of Maggie roof to make her all climate proof took some of our last energy. Thank god we had Daxel and his team and karoliens over my dead body spirit today.
We finally managed to put the underfloor heating on pressure with a compressor (hard to find here and it exploded twice). But yes…the machine is cooling trough our Maggie floor as we speak. Special thx to Dirk Reinhard and Bart Cupers who gave us some long distance backup to press the right buttons.

Hallelujah, Hayat made us delicious spaghetti tonight. This made our day.

Tomorrow hopefully last finishing.

Day 18

Day 19

It seemed like things would never end, but here we are, about to return home.

After more than 17 days of hard labour and after months and months of preparation the Maggie pop-up school for trauma healing is a fact. We lost quite a lot of sweat, blood, energy and even some things you don’t wanna know.

It was truly amazing to be able to collaborate with the local community like we did. This is one of most important pillars of the Maggie program and we’re so delighted that we were able to turn words into action. Furthermore, we hope that this project can help a lot of kids who suffered during the conflict. Keep on following our story to find out more news about the projects as time goes on.

Once again, we want to take a moment to say how beyond grateful we are for all our amazing volunteers. Big thanks to Karel, Maxim, Pieter, Karolien, Matthias, Hayat, Fares, Lisa and Lotte. And once more our sincerest apologies to make it look like it would be less work than that it actually was. Also many thanks to all of our sponsors.