In the past days, we had the honor of organizing a cultural, social, and artistic exchange tour with our friends and loved ones from the Kakay community of Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, and Halabja.
The program included a vibrant evening of folk music performed by the talented Sinjari and Kakay bands, Mirzo Institute and Hamraz Band. It also featured social and cultural meetings where the guests met with a group of Yazidi intellectuals, activists, religious figures, and members of the Sinjar Open Dialogue Platform.
The program included a visit to the home of the highest Yazidi religious authority in Sinjar, Faqir Khidir Kaso, a tour of Mount Sinjar, and visits to religious landmarks and genocide memorial sites. The guests also met with Sheikh Nayef Jasso, Mukhtar of Kojo village, visited the village and the Victims’ Museum at Kojo School, and toured memorials and mass graves across several locations.
As part of the initiative, symbolic pomegranate trees, brought by the guests from Hawar village in Halabja, were planted to contribute to the House of Co-Existence’s ongoing campaign to increase drought-resistant fruit trees in Sinjar.
In the coming period, we aim to organize a reciprocal visit from Sinjar’s intellectuals and activists to Halabja, where 74 Sinjari fig trees—symbolizing the Yazidi genocide—will be gifted and planted in designated areas, particularly during the Kakay Brotherhood Festival in spring.