Yezidis

We visited IDP yezidi families today and helped make pastries for their festival next week; played with the goat (which will be sacrificed for their festival); played with the children (one of whom is called "Flee" because she was born 2 months after her family fled da'esh).

We were shown their wedding photos (which they cleverly grabbed when they fled) and they told us the story of one of the families in a photo: the wife and 3 sons were visiting relatives back in 2014 when da'esh came to that village. All four of them got captured and taken to Raqqa. The family have no idea whether they're dead or alive (da'esh used yezidi boys as fighters /suicide bombers). The husband was in a different village so escaped and now lives in our city as a broken man. Seeing these photos just makes it all so close.