2014_12_04_Erbil_IDPs_sam_tarling_MH_8316
Adith Abdul Ahab Abdo, 83, sits outside a temporary shelter provided by Caritas at an IDP centre in Erbil, Iraq, on Dec 4 2014.
His family fled their home in Qarakosh, Iraq in August, when Islamic State militants overran their town. The so-called Islamic State is a radical Islamic militant group that controls territory in both Iraq and Syria. The fall of Mosul to IS in August and their subsequent advances is thought to have displaced over 1 million people, most of whom were Yazidis, Christians and other minorities, but also Muslim families too.
He told Caritas. “I miss my home. I’ve never been away from home for Christmas. Here I get depressed and sick and have to go to the hospital. There won’t be a christmas for us this year. We’ve no money, no clothes, nothing. It won’t feel like Christmas this year.”
Caritas has assisted around 50 families here at Akito school by providing them with 36 prefabricated shelters that offer better protection from the elements and a higher degree of comfort and security than the tents in which many of the families had previously been staying.
Saadi Marzen Aboud, the settlement’s ‘Masoul’ , or leader, told Caritas: “There’s not enough water for all the families, there’s not enough electricity and we can’t afford heaters.”
A further 110 families are staying inside the school building.
2014_12_04_Erbil_IDPs_sam_tarling_MH_8316
Adith Abdul Ahab Abdo, 83, sits outside a temporary shelter provided by Caritas at an IDP centre in Erbil, Iraq, on Dec 4 2014.
His family fled their home in Qarakosh, Iraq in August, when Islamic State militants overran their town. The so-called Islamic State is a radical Islamic militant group that controls territory in both Iraq and Syria. The fall of Mosul to IS in August and their subsequent advances is thought to have displaced over 1 million people, most of whom were Yazidis, Christians and other minorities, but also Muslim families too.
He told Caritas. “I miss my home. I’ve never been away from home for Christmas. Here I get depressed and sick and have to go to the hospital. There won’t be a christmas for us this year. We’ve no money, no clothes, nothing. It won’t feel like Christmas this year.”
Caritas has assisted around 50 families here at Akito school by providing them with 36 prefabricated shelters that offer better protection from the elements and a higher degree of comfort and security than the tents in which many of the families had previously been staying.
Saadi Marzen Aboud, the settlement’s ‘Masoul’ , or leader, told Caritas: “There’s not enough water for all the families, there’s not enough electricity and we can’t afford heaters.”
A further 110 families are staying inside the school building.