Coming straight from the airport after a long trip from Australia, Youssef Zora Al-Sakaria, couldn’t believe his eyes: his family farm, destroyed by Islamic State when they occupied Qaraqosh, Iraq, in 2014, had been completely renovated. He was so excited that for two days he refused to go home and slept among the 6,000 chicks that his son Atheer Youssef Zora had recently received thanks to the project “A virtuous production cycle to relaunch a city and its economic fabric for IDPs and returnees to the Nineveh Plains.” Implemented by AVSI Foundation in Iraq, the project is funded by the U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

When the Islamic State seized Qaraqosh in 2014, hundreds of Iraqi Christians were forced to flee. Their houses, churches, schools, and businesses were destroyed. Not even public parks and children’s playgrounds were spared. Now, as the local population returns home, debris and rubbles have slowly been replaced by trees, flowers and colorful playgrounds in some areas, like the Municipality of Al-Hamdaniya, where AVSI and local authorities inaugurated on November 18 the Al-Narjes Garden. The reconstruction of the community public space was made possible thanks to the project “A virtuous production cycle to relaunch a city and its economic fabric for IDPs and returnees to the Nineveh Plains, Iraq”, funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).