Yazda
| يزدا | |
 |
|
| Formation | August 28, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Texas U.S. |
| Type |
Nonprofit organization Non-governmental organization (NGO) |
| Purpose | Humanitarian Activism Advocacy Prevent Genocide |
| Headquarters |
United States United Kingdom Iraq Sweden |
| Location |
|
| Slogan | "Unite Our Nation – Never another Genocide" |
| Website | Yazda.org |
Yazda: Global Yazidi Organization (/ yɑːzdə/, Arabic: يزدا; Kurdish: يه زدا), is a United States-based global Yazidi nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO) advocacy, aid, and relief organization. Yazda was established to support the Yazidi, who are a minority ethnoreligious group around the world, especially in northern Iraq, specifically Sinjar and Nineveh Plain, and northeastern Syria, where the Yazidi community has, as part of a deliberate "military, economic, and political strategy," been the focus of a genocidal campaign by ISIL that included mass murder, the separation of families, forced religious conversions, forced marriages, sexual assault, physical assault, torture, kidnapping, and slavery.
In August 2014, Yazda was founded by a group of Yazidi and Yazidi American activists in the United States centered around Yazidi communities in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Houston, Texas. In addition to education initiatives that explain Yazidi culture and religion, Yazda runs a Yazda's Center in Kurdistan, Iraq, and assists victims of the genocide and rape that began in Iraq in 2014.
The first mission of Yazda was advocating in the United States during ISIL's attack on Sinjar. Yazda helped by providing humanitarian assistance in the form of food and water to approximately 60,000 Yazidis, who were stranded on mountain Sinjar by ISIL during the week of August 3, 2014. At this point, Yazda began its work trying to locate and help free Yazidi women and girls, more than 3,200 of whom were captured, enslaved, and are still held hostage by the Islamic State. Those women and girls are victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery.
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