Help save the Yezidis!

Help Save the Yezidis! You know you are a Yezidi if your family is always watching the news, your weekend alarm clock is Mom vacuuming, and your dad tells war stories in which he is the hero. So what’s a Yezidi? Yezidis are a beloved Middle Eastern monotheistic people on the verge of extinction at the hands of ISIS extremists who are also targeting Christians.[1] In August 2014, President Obama authorized air strikes and emergency missions after ISIS forces chased over 10,000 Yezidis up Mount Sinjar in Northen Iraq.[2]

Women with two small children had to decide which child to carry up the mountain because their tormenters wouldn’t let them slow down enough to carry both. Over 5000 Yezidi men have been murdered. 7000 women and girls have been sold as sex slaves. In an October 2014 video, the cameraman says, “Today is the slave market,” each fighter will receive “his share.” One fighter wants a girl with blue eyes. Another wants a fifteen-year-old with green eyes. One wants to trade a female slave for a pistol.[3]

10,000 Yezidis on Mount Sinjar are enduring freezing winter weather without shelter or proper clothing. Children are ill or injured. Over 1,000 children have already died. The International Association for Human Values is airlifting food, water, medicine and hygiene products. IAHV airlifted over 400 from the mountain to Syrian refugee camps.

Please give generously at http://www.iahv.org/us-en/yazidi-relief/.

Attend our April 15th press conference. See the invitation at http://rebpam.com.

UN DPI/NGO Women’s National Book Association at the United Nations – United Nations affiliation: The Women’s National Book Association has been a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) member of the United Nations since 1959. An NGO is defined as “any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group that is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of services and humanitarian functions, bring citizens’ concerns to governments, monitor policies and encourage political participation at the community level.” ______________________________________________________ This article was published in the winter 2015 newsletter of WNBA-San Francisco Chapter available at http://wnba-sfchapter.org.

[1] Yezidis: http://www.yezidis.org/you-know-you-are-a-yezidi-when/; Christians and Yezidis subject to sex slavery http://tinyurl.com/l5d8fdr.

[2] Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/l64g4b8; New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/nmg2kl2; the Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/kejfsbv; al Arabiyah: http://tinyurl.com/mudefnh.

[3] UK Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-fighters-barter-over-yazidi-girls-on-slave-market-day–the-shocking-video-9836589.html; United Nations press release: http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/dsgsm825.doc.htm.