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IF Celebrates 17 Year Anniversary
Dear Friends,
It gives us great pleasure to announce that
the Iraq Foundation (IF) celebrated our 17th
year anniversary this October! We would like
to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our
organizational partners, donors, and the
Iraqi community for 17 years of teamwork,
commitment, and support. We are proud to be a
pluralistic institution created by Iraqis for
Iraqis and we are equally proud of our
steadfast support of human rights and
democratic principles, clear vision to build
strong civil society institutions in Iraq,
and our unwavering commitment to the rights
of women and children. In the years to come,
we pledge to continue this commitment and
realize our vision of a free, peaceful, and
democratic Iraq.
In addition, we would like to take this
opportunity to inform you about our recent
activities and accomplishments during the
month of October. Working hard to promote
IF's mission, Executive Director Rend
Al-Rahim traveled extensively in Iraq and
throughout the Middle East, meeting with
politicians and interviewing with regional
and international media.
IF held a highly successful workshop on human
rights in Beirut, Lebanon this October, as
part of our Human Rights Advocacy Initiative
project. In addition to implementing two
in-country workshops as part of the
Anti-corruption and Transparency (ACT)
project, IF also broadened our media outreach
campaign against corruption by broadcasting
television spots on Iraqi TV. Working to
empower widows, IF also opened its fourth
training center for widows in Iraq this month
in Basra.
As always, should you have any questions
about our activities, please do not hesitate
to contact us.
Sincerely,
Joseph Sandor
Communication Officer
Iraq Foundation
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IF Staff Meets with US Embassy staff and Amnesty International |
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While traveling in Iraq and throughout the
Middle East, Executive Director Rend Al-Rahim
took many high level meetings with Iraqi
officials and members of the media. IF staff
in Baghdad and Basra also met with US Embassy
officials to discuss several IF projects in
October. Meeting on the 14th, key staff from
IF's Baghdad office met to discuss the Human
Rights Advocacy Initiative (HRAI) project as
well as the Widows Empowerment (WEP) project.
Similar meetings were held in Basra. In
addition, IF staff and members of the HRAI
advocacy coalition met with Amnesty
International officials, while attending the
HRAI workshop in Beirut.
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IF Holds Human Rights Advocacy Workshop in Beirut |
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The HRAI workshop in Beirut was the first of
a series of four trainings aimed at helping
the human rights coalition members to hone
their skills in turning disparate data on
human rights violations into concerted,
powerful messages of change and action. Part
of the Human Rights Advocacy Initiative
project, this two-part workshop was from
October 25 - 31st. In addition to the
Foundation's Executive Director, Ms. Rend
Al-Rahim, and DC-based project manager Maria
Abousleiman, this workshop brought 19
representatives from human rights NGOs based
throughout Iraq. The first half of the
workshop aimed at providing participants with
a skill set to professionally catalog and
record human rights violations. The second
half of the training aimed at instructing
participants on the latest human rights
monitoring software to systematically record
and share human enable human rights monitors
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ACT Launches Television Campaign Against Corruption |
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During the month of October, IF continued its
media campaign, broadcasting a radio spot
twice a day on Al-Iraqiyya radio station and
a TV spot on Al-Iraqiyya TV station twice a
week. IF also published a report on the July
conference in the Ta'akhi and Adalah
newspapers. Additionally, IF implemented two
in-country workshops: one in Baghdad and
another one in the Suleimaniyya province. IF
also continued planning and preparing for the
upcoming Beirut retreat.
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IF Opens Second Training Center for Widows in Basra |
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As part of IF's work to empower widows
politically and economically, IF opened a
second training center in the Basra
governorate on October 13th. To celebrate
this opening, a small ribbon cutting ceremony
was held, which was attended by the Director
of Education and select members of the
Municipal Council of Basra. Local radio and
television covered the opening of the center.
Complementing the work done at the Zubair
Training Center in Basra and the two centers
in Baghdad, which opened last in September,
the newly opened Al-Qurna center in Basra
will train and empower an additional 68
widows during the first training cycle.
Training classes continued throughout the
month of October in the three other centers.
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