Support Displaced Individuals to Become Trauma Recovery Yoga (TRY) Instructors

Your money will go toward sponsoring 10 enthusiastic, displaced women to become certified and mentored in the TRY Method. They'll get the full 20-hour TRY Teacher Training, as well as ongoing mentorship and later, placement in a paid position teaching TRY in Kurdistan.

This strategy of training and empowering locals to teach TRY, then placing them in a paid position is geared toward building a system through which TRY Global can support sustainable empowerment efforts on individual and community levels, as well as a greater awareness and understanding around trauma and trauma-informed care.

Accessibility is a pillar of TRY, but in this region of the world, paying for a training - no matter how valuable - is not realistic for displaced individuals living in poverty. Therefore, WE NEED YOUR HELP to not only bring TRY to those who need it most, but to empower and train THEM to teach it in their own communities.

The women you'll be supporting have likely been displaced from either Shingal (the Yazidi homeland) or Syria. These participants will be recommended by selected organizations in Duhok, and will then be approved by the TRY Training facilitators, to ensure they have a command of English and have a genuine interest in this training and desire to pursue it upon graduating.

DISPLACED YAZIDIS

Yazidis were the main target of ISIS' genocide in 2014, and many women were captured and sexually enslaved for years following. Upon returning to their families, assuming they had survived, they faced heartbreaking discrimination around having lost their virginity before marriage, shamed and shunned in their religion. For women who were impregnated by an ISIS member during captivity, they were then forced to leave their child in a camp in Syria before crossing back into Iraq to return home. For these reasons, as well as living in poverty with lack of many basic resources, the Yazidi community continues to endure a tragic mental health crisis, more than years after the genocide.

DISPLACED SYRIANS

Syrians in the Kurdistan Region have similarly undergone forced displacement and brutal encounters with the Syrian regime, ISIS and other extremist groups. For almost a decade, they've been migrating here with hopes of returning when the situation back home tames. Unfortunately, there is a specific stigma for Syrians in KRI especially when it comes to obtaining a job, mainly due to the large influx into an already economically struggling country. In turn, this along with a lack of opportunities has chipped away at the passion and capabilities of many of these individuals.

These two groups have a few things in common. Yes, they've faced unimaginable horrors and injustices. Despite their circumstances, when we speak with displaced people here, they also often express a deep desire to grow and do something meaningful with their lives. TRY is one opportunity to do just that.

Sure, we could simply teach the TRY classes and be satisfied with their feeling better. But to empower these individuals to understand the science behind the practice, to understand the mind-body connection, and to teach the class themselves? That's empowerment.

When you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. It's the same with teaching Self-Regulation for Resilience (SRR) and TRY; developing a more mindful relationship with your breath, body and mind. This is not a "one and done" type of workshop, and the support participants receive doesn't end when the training ends.

We offer ongoing mentorship to ensure that the graduates can practice the class and receive feedback in a safe, empowering environment. They will then shadow the facilitators in community classes and then, when they feel comfortable, teach with supervision before getting the green light to teach on their own.

In a region of the world where community is everything, we are following suit as we build this global TRYb. As we support one another, we strive to ensure that our classes and trainings remain high quality and are safe, empowering, predictable and accessible to those in most need.

A Mindful Movements class taught at Springs of Hope Foundation in Shariya Camp, a camp of over 17,000 Yazidi IDPs in Iraqi Kurdistan.

This mind-body method has been incredibly well received in a region of the world where somatic practices are otherwise non-existent. Organizations and beneficiaries are curious to learn more, interested in practicing themselves, and eager to discover new ways to help the populations here recover from inter-generational, complex and chronic traumas.

So far in Iraqi Kurdistan, we've taught classes in partnership with organizations for survivors of genocide, orphans, local humanitarians and other highly vulnerable populations.

We truly cannot do this without you. Your contribution will go directly to the costs laid out above, starting with most essential. Can't donate monetarily? That's okay! Please share on your social media channels. Every share counts!

LEARN MORE about TRY Global + the 20-HOUR TRY TRAINING: www.try-global.com/becomeaTRYinstructor!