2023 - Iraq - Sustainable livelihoods - Photo by Frank van Lierde
Mohammed Ali Mohammed, 35 years old, father of five, used to be a farmer and a police officer before ISIL occupied his village. In 2015, he was kidnapped and tortured. Today he is a shop owner in Gharib, a village some 10 km outside Hawija city, near areas where ISIL cells continue to carry out attacks and terrorise the population.
Conflict and climate change have largely destroyed the livelihoods of farmers and small agribusiness owners in Hawija. It was once Iraq’s most prosperous agricultural centre. Cordaid joined hands with others to assist hundreds of farmers and SME owners in Hawija in growing their businesses. Despite the odds and traumas of extreme drought, violent extremism, nepotism, and 21st-century warfare and geopolitics, they carry on. Mohammed is one of them.
“It was August 5, 2015”
“When ISIL came, everything stopped. I tried to make a living by secretly trading cigarettes for a while, but I knew that at one point I had to run. I am a farmer but I had also been a police officer for seven years. And they were after anyone related to the authorities. So I fled with other men who were wanted by ISIL, but without my family. It would have been too risky for them. I tried to reach Salah Al-Din, but we were caught in the mountains. A dozen cars full of ISIL fighters suddenly surrounded us. We were ambushed. It was August 5, 2015.”
“Most of those who had tried to escape, including women and kids, were released. But I and five other police officers were taken away, blindfolded, to a house in Hawija city. Others had been taken there before us. We were about fifty imprisoned in one room. Some of the inner walls had been broken down. For a month we were tortured. They did all kinds of things. Strangulation, suffocation, starvation, beatings with guns. And electric shocks. They specifically applied shocks on my kidneys.
It was extremely scary. They threatened to kill us many times. When they entered the room, you knew it could be your last hour. And we were so hungry. But sometimes we couldn’t eat even the little rice or meat they gave us because of the fear inside.
Somehow, I managed to not go crazy. The idea that everything was in the hands of God gave me some peace.”
From farmer to shop owner
“After a month, our captors took half of the detainees away. They released the other half, including myself. Later, we found out they had executed all of the men in the other group.
I went back home. My wife and kids were in disbelief. They thought I had been killed. I was happy to be back, but I couldn’t cope with my life any longer. Before, I was a farmer, and now I couldn’t farm anymore. I was too ill, both my kidneys had been destroyed. My brother ended up donating one of his kidneys. Still, farming is out of the question. That hurts. We have been farmers for generations, growing wheat, onions, tomatoes… We still have the family land, but others now do the farming.
I am confident things will work out well in the future.
So I changed my course. With all the medical costs I had to cover and household expenses, we desperately needed money. Two years ago I opened a small grocery shop. I sell all kinds of things, rice, flour, sugar, sweets for kids, chickpeas, and even clocks. At one point I was even too ill to run the shop, I almost had to close it down. Because of the medicine I take to stop my body from rejecting the newly donated kidney, my immunity levels are very low. Since Covid-19, I constantly wear a face mask and gloves.”
Slowly growing business
“The support we got from the Blossom Up project helped us a lot. It taught us how to attract more customers, to find the right price/quality ratio in our assortment, so that people can afford what we offer and still come back. Here, people have little to spend, so high prices won’t work. Still, we need to make some profit.”
“With the grant we received, I bought storage racks, fridges, and a freezer. And I was able to expand my assortment. Before, that kind of investment was impossible because of all the medical costs.”
“Business is slowly increasing. I did better as a farmer though. Today, I earn about half of the money I made by working the land. For three years now, I have tried to get some of the financial compensation I am entitled to as a victim of ISIL atrocities. We went to Kirkuk to apply for that, and we even have a lawyer on the case. No results.”
“But I am confident things will work out well in the future. Now, with the support we received, I feel that my new business can grow. The least I can do is work hard and make sure that my kids can go to school and successfully finish their education. So far, I manage to do that, and it fills me with pride. Myself, I dropped out at the age of ten, because I had to work on my father’s land. I still regret that. During the ISIL occupation, my oldest daughter couldn’t attend classes any longer. Luckily, afterward, she continued studying.”
Conflict and climate change have largely destroyed the livelihoods of farmers and small agribusiness owners in Hawija. It was once Iraq’s most prosperous agricultural centre. Cordaid joined hands with others to assist hundreds of them in growing their businesses against all odds.
Twenty years ago, on March 20th, 2003, the war in Iraq brutally kicked off. It propelled human suffering, already so pervasive under the dictatorship of Saddam, to unprecedented levels.
Hawija, a district in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, was particularly hard hit. Up to this day, its people continue to suffer. They have seen it all. Vertical and remote warfare from the air by an untouchable enemy and horizontal warfare by troops on the ground. The rise of violent extremism from Al Qaeda and a three-year siege by ISIL. Mass executions, kidnappings, and human shield tactics against an entire population during a brutal war of liberation. Two decades of war and extremism have turned this district in the north into one of the most violence-wracked parts of the country.
To support Hawija in addressing this double burden of conflict and climate adversity, Cordaid joined hands with others in the ‘Blossom Up, Agriculture for growth’.
This project started in September 2022, with UNDP as its implementor, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), provided through KFW Development Bank. UNDP implements this project in partnership with a consortium consisting of Cordaid, Al-Ghad and Delphy. Its aim? To revitalise Hawija’s agricultural and agri-business sectors.
“We saw there was hardly any international support for Hawija. Therefore, we decided to assist the hardest-hit farmers and agri-business owners. We do this in an area many organisations prefer to stay away from for security reasons”, explains Cordaid programme lead Nynke Schaap.
“Altogether, in six months, with Blossom Up, we have provided practical and theoretical crash courses and training to 249 farmers and 77 owners of small agri-business owners”, Business Support and Youth Employment Expert Othman Khalil adds. Of these, 105 farmers received a 3500 USD grant and 40 SME owners received 3200 USD to invest in their businesses. Grant money was used for major investments such as generators, solar panels, construction work, and, most importantly, new irrigation systems that are better adapted to water scarcity.
2023 - Iraq - Sustainable livelihoods - Photo by Frank van Lierde
Mohammed Ali Mohammed, 35 years old, father of five, used to be a farmer and a police officer before ISIL occupied his village. In 2015, he was kidnapped and tortured. Today he is a shop owner in Gharib, a village some 10 km outside Hawija city, near areas where ISIL cells continue to carry out attacks and terrorise the population.
Conflict and climate change have largely destroyed the livelihoods of farmers and small agribusiness owners in Hawija. It was once Iraq’s most prosperous agricultural centre. Cordaid joined hands with others to assist hundreds of farmers and SME owners in Hawija in growing their businesses. Despite the odds and traumas of extreme drought, violent extremism, nepotism, and 21st-century warfare and geopolitics, they carry on. Mohammed is one of them.
“It was August 5, 2015”
“When ISIL came, everything stopped. I tried to make a living by secretly trading cigarettes for a while, but I knew that at one point I had to run. I am a farmer but I had also been a police officer for seven years. And they were after anyone related to the authorities. So I fled with other men who were wanted by ISIL, but without my family. It would have been too risky for them. I tried to reach Salah Al-Din, but we were caught in the mountains. A dozen cars full of ISIL fighters suddenly surrounded us. We were ambushed. It was August 5, 2015.”
“Most of those who had tried to escape, including women and kids, were released. But I and five other police officers were taken away, blindfolded, to a house in Hawija city. Others had been taken there before us. We were about fifty imprisoned in one room. Some of the inner walls had been broken down. For a month we were tortured. They did all kinds of things. Strangulation, suffocation, starvation, beatings with guns. And electric shocks. They specifically applied shocks on my kidneys.
It was extremely scary. They threatened to kill us many times. When they entered the room, you knew it could be your last hour. And we were so hungry. But sometimes we couldn’t eat even the little rice or meat they gave us because of the fear inside.
Somehow, I managed to not go crazy. The idea that everything was in the hands of God gave me some peace.”
From farmer to shop owner
“After a month, our captors took half of the detainees away. They released the other half, including myself. Later, we found out they had executed all of the men in the other group.
I went back home. My wife and kids were in disbelief. They thought I had been killed. I was happy to be back, but I couldn’t cope with my life any longer. Before, I was a farmer, and now I couldn’t farm anymore. I was too ill, both my kidneys had been destroyed. My brother ended up donating one of his kidneys. Still, farming is out of the question. That hurts. We have been farmers for generations, growing wheat, onions, tomatoes… We still have the family land, but others now do the farming.
I am confident things will work out well in the future.
So I changed my course. With all the medical costs I had to cover and household expenses, we desperately needed money. Two years ago I opened a small grocery shop. I sell all kinds of things, rice, flour, sugar, sweets for kids, chickpeas, and even clocks. At one point I was even too ill to run the shop, I almost had to close it down. Because of the medicine I take to stop my body from rejecting the newly donated kidney, my immunity levels are very low. Since Covid-19, I constantly wear a face mask and gloves.”
Slowly growing business
“The support we got from the Blossom Up project helped us a lot. It taught us how to attract more customers, to find the right price/quality ratio in our assortment, so that people can afford what we offer and still come back. Here, people have little to spend, so high prices won’t work. Still, we need to make some profit.”
“With the grant we received, I bought storage racks, fridges, and a freezer. And I was able to expand my assortment. Before, that kind of investment was impossible because of all the medical costs.”
“Business is slowly increasing. I did better as a farmer though. Today, I earn about half of the money I made by working the land. For three years now, I have tried to get some of the financial compensation I am entitled to as a victim of ISIL atrocities. We went to Kirkuk to apply for that, and we even have a lawyer on the case. No results.”
“But I am confident things will work out well in the future. Now, with the support we received, I feel that my new business can grow. The least I can do is work hard and make sure that my kids can go to school and successfully finish their education. So far, I manage to do that, and it fills me with pride. Myself, I dropped out at the age of ten, because I had to work on my father’s land. I still regret that. During the ISIL occupation, my oldest daughter couldn’t attend classes any longer. Luckily, afterward, she continued studying.”
Conflict and climate change have largely destroyed the livelihoods of farmers and small agribusiness owners in Hawija. It was once Iraq’s most prosperous agricultural centre. Cordaid joined hands with others to assist hundreds of them in growing their businesses against all odds.
Twenty years ago, on March 20th, 2003, the war in Iraq brutally kicked off. It propelled human suffering, already so pervasive under the dictatorship of Saddam, to unprecedented levels.
Hawija, a district in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, was particularly hard hit. Up to this day, its people continue to suffer. They have seen it all. Vertical and remote warfare from the air by an untouchable enemy and horizontal warfare by troops on the ground. The rise of violent extremism from Al Qaeda and a three-year siege by ISIL. Mass executions, kidnappings, and human shield tactics against an entire population during a brutal war of liberation. Two decades of war and extremism have turned this district in the north into one of the most violence-wracked parts of the country.
To support Hawija in addressing this double burden of conflict and climate adversity, Cordaid joined hands with others in the ‘Blossom Up, Agriculture for growth’.
This project started in September 2022, with UNDP as its implementor, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), provided through KFW Development Bank. UNDP implements this project in partnership with a consortium consisting of Cordaid, Al-Ghad and Delphy. Its aim? To revitalise Hawija’s agricultural and agri-business sectors.
“We saw there was hardly any international support for Hawija. Therefore, we decided to assist the hardest-hit farmers and agri-business owners. We do this in an area many organisations prefer to stay away from for security reasons”, explains Cordaid programme lead Nynke Schaap.
“Altogether, in six months, with Blossom Up, we have provided practical and theoretical crash courses and training to 249 farmers and 77 owners of small agri-business owners”, Business Support and Youth Employment Expert Othman Khalil adds. Of these, 105 farmers received a 3500 USD grant and 40 SME owners received 3200 USD to invest in their businesses. Grant money was used for major investments such as generators, solar panels, construction work, and, most importantly, new irrigation systems that are better adapted to water scarcity.