Inspired by 2018 Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad, $200,000 Campaign Announced
To Help Support Heroic Mission of Free Yezidi Foundation
Pari Ibrahim, Founder and CEO of Free Yezidi Foundation | This photo is part of the “SDG Impact Heroes” original series by Ralph Reutimann.
Reykjavik, Iceland – December 21, 2018. As part of the Decade Of Women Forum just concluded in Iceland, 5th Element Group PBC and its partner Solver announced a US $200,000 year-end matching grant campaign to benefit refugee women and girls through the Free Yezidi Foundation.
Free Yezidi Foundation, founded by Pari Ibrahim, is responding to the brutal genocide of the Yezidi community by ISIS through a variety of strategic support initiatives for women and children, from psychological services to computer skills training, that help these victims re-enter society.
“We are so under-resourced in providing the most basic services to the Yezidi community,” Ibrahim said. “This grant can help us create a center that serves nearly 1,000 people with services they need to live better, more hope-filled lives, and advances the cause of religious freedom in our part of the world.”
The announcement was inspired by the story of courageous vulnerability told to the world by 2018 Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad, a Yezidi woman who was made a sex slave by ISIS but escaped and then spoke out to help end the outrage of sexual violence as a weapon of war, and to secure freedom and basic rights for the Yezidi people.
“Nadia and Pari both remind us that the fight for any cause like this is about a fight for communities, and for the dignity of individual people,” said 5th Element President Jim Van Eerden. “The Yezidi people are emblematic of people in captivity, people neglected, all around the world.”
“By refusing Yezidis any option to avoid death or forced conversion, IS[IS] demonstrated that its actions were calculated with the intent of destroying the community and thereby different from its attacks against other minorities, which were part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing,” wrote Naomi Kikoler, Deputy Director of the Simon Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide and author of a report on the Yezidis.
The match donation was directed through 5th Element Group PBC as part of its “Solver” campaigns addressing the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Funding support was provided by Semnani Family Foundation, in connection with the work of the SDG Impact Fund. This year’s campaigns all involve projects that uplift women and girls and bring attention to key aspects of the effort to help.
In addition to the match funding opportunity, the campaign includes a social media Call to Action to share videos from Yezidi women leaders who the campaign will support. The Decade Of Women is challenging women and girls around the world to follow the Free Yezidi cause, and share the stories of struggle and triumph in any format using hashtag #womenrising.
Additionally, every dollar donated will be matched, with a total goal of gifting more than $200,000. This gift will help Free Yezidi Foundation to qualify to receive larger grants from larger institutions, and will serve thousands of Yezidi women and children by providing long-term help in healing, rehabilitation and restoration.
Please help by sharing, and donating here:
https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/27995/free-yezidi-foundation/
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About the Decade Of Women
Launched on International Women’s Day in New York, together with 5th Element Group and Thomson Reuters, the Decade Of Women solutions and action campaign announced their dedication to Completing the Equity Revolution. The Decade Of Women has brought forth a #WeUniteWe Pledge as part of a decade-long series of bold commitments to Celebrate, Unite and Exponentiate the progress of both women and men to complete the gender equity revolution, and realize UN Sustainable Development Goal #5 by 2030.
About Free Yezidi Foundation
The Free Yezidi Foundation is designed to assist Yezidis in need. The Foundation was established shortly after terrorists attempted to eradicate the Yezidi people in August 2014. The Free Yezidi Foundation seeks to implement projects to protect and support the most vulnerable members of the Yezidi community. Give here → https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/27995/free-yezidi-foundation/
About 5th Element Group PBC
5th Element Group PBC is a global business development accelerator with a mission of delivering frontier technology solutions that achieves the Sustainable Development Goals. 5th Element creates capital that did not exist before, deploy that capital where it has yet to be deployed, and scale new forms of corresponding collaboration. 5th Element’s vision is to help create a new socio-economic era that closes historic gaps in last-mile inclusion. 5thElement.Group
About the Solver: Movement
The Solver: Movement connects people to the leaders achieving the UN SDGs through interactive campaigns and innovation prize competitions. Participate in progress with the Solver: Movement.
About Semnani Family Foundation
The mission of the Semnani Family Foundation is to find creative and effective ways of serving the needs of marginal and vulnerable communities around the world, particularly those whose survival and security is at grave risk or immediate danger due to forces and factors beyond their control. Whether it is helping communities recover from disease, famine, earthquake or war, or promoting research, educational and civic initiatives, we focus our giving where we can make the most difference.
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For press inquiries about Decade Of Women or 5th Element Group, please contact:
Isabel Schaad | isabel@5thelement.group