Aims at providing further significance to the role of youths and strengthen the coexistence and social cohesion in Iraq and KRI, the BCF in partnership with the French Center for Research on Iraq (CFRI) and Civil Development Organization(CDO) held a 1-day panel about the Role of Youth in Coexistence and Social Cohesion on February 21, 2022, in Erbil, KRI. Meanwhile, the panelists were including the director of the French Center for Research on Iraq (CFRI) Dr. Adil Bakhawan, the General Director of Civil Development Organization Mr. Bakhtyar Ahmed, and the deputy head of the BCF Mr. Ibrahim Samin. The panel was presented by Ms. Stav Aso.
The General Director of Civil Development Organization:
“This initiative by the BCF and CDO in partnership is a crucial step through social cohesion.”
In the beginning, Mr. Bakhtyar Ahmed, the General Director of Civil Development Organization declared that: This project comes into being in partnership with these NGOs. The CDO and all the other NGOs have always attempted to raise public awareness and live peacefully. The CDO has worked mainly on two aspects including awareness-raising and capacity building. The CDO, BCF, and CFRI have applied a new method that we mobilize the youths and will make our effort to encourage them for living peacefully in their areas of origin(AoO).
The director of the French Center for Research on Iraq:
“Youths would take part in the project from Basra to Zakho and gender equality will be considered.”
Later, the director of the French Center for Research on Iraq (CFRI) Dr. Adil Bakhawan presented his statement and informed: the participants should consist of people from different religions, different settings, different social classes, different educational levels, and different backgrounds. Realistic people should take part in this project so that the project will reflect our society. Youths would take part in the project from Basra to Zakho and gender equality will be considered. Our task with the BCF and CDO is to change the world and we will complete each other at that point.
The deputy head of the BCF Mr. Ibrahim Samin:
“We should see the capacity of youths and their impact on society.”
Iraq is a multicultural state and this is represented in having different religions, components, and nations. We make our efforts to live peacefully and provide capacity-building opportunities to the youths. The BCF was founded in 2005 and worked on skills development and social cohesion. We are a Kurdish NGO but known in the whole of Iraq. While the Kurds were waiting for a Kurdish NGO to provide assistance while the emergency contexts, we came into being.
The BCF thinks about sending the message of humanity and social cohesion to the world. This message came into being under the inspiration of the “Barzani” name that came from the “Mustafa Barzani” that was applying the humanitarian principles in his political and social life and believing in strongly believed in coexistence. We are striving to deliver this message to the community and the whole world.
In recent years, in Iraq after many years of conflict and war that caused displacing numerous people, we as the BCF thought about using this as an opportunity for diversifying our community and strengthening peace among the society. We took it as a chance for developing a sense of humanity and develop social cohesion. As part of this, we opened centers in all the camps so as to provide capacity-building training for the youths. This project is a strategic project and it’s an initiation for developing the capacity of our youths so as to leave a positive impact on the society and this plan needs the support of all the parties.
Finally, the participants asked several questions to the panelists and they discussed the topic together.
