A team of the Center’s volunteers organized the initiative of conducting a Carnival on Peace in Kurdistan Region, which lasted for one day. This carnival took place at Students Center at University of Duhok on 12 September 2018. A total of 113 people attended this carnival (72 IDPs, 41 HC) and (51 males, 62 females). The carnival attend by the Duhok city mayor, local government, CSOs members and Youth Center’s members.
The carnival is one of nine youth initiatives carried out within the UoD and New York University project “Building University Capacity in Peace Education in Duhok and Mosul” supported by UNDP’s Iraq Crisis Response and Resilience Programme (ICRRP) and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). The project aimed to develop practical peacebuilding skills among at least 20 youth in three locations around Duhok heavily affected by population displacement and resulting community-level tensions, which are Duhok, Sumel, and Sheikhan. These initiatives demonstrated the youth’s increased ability to coordinate activities, to work with other stakeholders, and to complete projects aimed at enhancing peacefulness. In order to complete these projects, students engaged with local stakeholders and community leaders on multiple levels and worked through close mentorship by CPCRS.