World Vision Iraq launches new three-year strategy with art exhibition
For Immediate Release
World Vision Iraq launches new three-year strategy with art exhibition
International organisation World Vision Iraq will launch its new three-year strategy this Tuesday, February 6, with an art exhibition in Erbil.
Marking the ten-year anniversary of the start of World Vision Iraq’s mission, Landscapes of challenge, portraits of hope will highlight World Vision Iraq’s transition from emergency humanitarian relief, which began in the midst of conflict, to long-term development work in partnership with the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities, and local partners.
The nine original artworks, by local artist Shayan Nuradeen, reflect on the theme of ‘Enough’, the focus of World Vision’s new global campaign to tackle child hunger. The artworks depict both the challenge of realising ‘Enough’ for Iraq’s children, and the hope that animates the work of World Vision and its partners. The artworks are informed by Ms Nuradeen’s four years of work with World Vision.
Said Ms Nuradeen:
“A lot of people in Iraq have been through a great deal of suffering. The children of Iraq in particular have endured so much. In these paintings I got close enough to individuals to really feel the pain they’ve experienced. I am sharing real life stories of children of Iraq, children who suffered unbearable loss in conflict, some becoming breadwinners at a very young age and taking on responsibilities that no child should, others getting married too early, yet others children living with life-changing injuries and disabilities due to conflict. Too many have lost their childhoods.
“Nevertheless, many children and young people hold on to hope and their creativity and energy is an inspiration not to give up.”
World Vision Iraq National Director Larisa Klepac added:
“Every child deserves the food they need to develop a healthy body and mind. Every family deserves to be able to put enough of the right food on the table.
“In Iraq, in recent years, the denial of this right has been closely linked to conflict and its effects. While these effects and the need for humanitarian assistance persist, the reduction in conflict in recent years has highlighted other fundamental challenges. Increasingly, child hunger and malnutrition in Iraq are bound up with the threat presented by climate change and macroeconomic challenges. Tellingly, the biggest cause of displacement at present is no longer conflict but climate-related: the degradation and overall reduction of available water resources.
“That’s why World Vision’s focus in Iraq until 2026 will be on longer-term durable solutions. In the wake of conflict, we see green shoots of recovery, but it is as if these shoots are emerging through the dry soil of socio-economic challenges and into the scorching sun of climate change.
“Iraq’s children need of course need enough food, and enough of the right food. But we know from World Vision’s work across the world that giving people food is not enough. In Iraq, enough food and nutrition in the future will depend on girls, boys, women and men from all communities enjoying, enough water, enough peace, enough protection, enough healthcare, enough education, enough opportunities, and enough participation in the decisions that affect their lives.
“We believe that with the right partnerships, and with Iraqi communities in the driving seat, Iraq has ENOUGH to sustain all of its children, long into the future.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
World Vision Iraq will launch its new three-year nexus strategy at the Ramada Hotel, Erbil, 10:00-13:00 6 February. To arrange media engagement or attend, please contact basma_azuz@wvi.org.
World Vision is a child-focused Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organisation operating in over 100 countries. World Vision Iraq began as an emergency humanitarian response in 2014, dedicated to saving lives, and continues to operate under a Category 3 Sustained Humanitarian Response Declaration, due to enduring needs in the country. However, as the context gradually changes, World Vision Iraq is increasing its focus on recovery and resilience. Globally, World Vision works across the whole Humanitarian, Development and Peacebuilding Nexus (HDPN). For a summary of the strategy visit here.
Shayan Nuradeen is a visual artist based in Erbil, who works across various media. Shayan’s artistic voice connects her experience as an Iraqi to her training in New York and Italy. Meanwhile, her professional experience in the NGO sector has given her work its characteristic incisiveness and urgency. As well as being a talented designer she has won multiple photography awards and her work is displayed in private collections across the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Her website is at: www.shayannuradeen.com
For more information or to arrange an interview with Larisa contact:
Basma Azuz, Administration and Government Relations Coordinator on +964 (0) 750 140 7985
Mark Calder, Director of Policy and Advocacy at mark_calder@wvi.org