Youth4Youth
“Healing Hearts, Building Friendships—One Book at a Time”
- Who are we?
We are Youth4Youth, a culturally diverse civilian volunteer group in the Netherlands teaming up with youth from Hawijah town, Kirkuk Province, Iraq. Established in 2023, we’re a grassroots initiative, independent of government funding or influence.
- What is our aim?
We aim to show acknowledgement and empathy for the enduring suffering of Iraqis affected by decades of political violence, especially in the aftermath of the June 2015 Dutch airstrike on Hawijah, carried out during the war against Islamic State. Our goal is to bridge the divide between Dutch and Iraqi people resulting from this airstrike, thereby fostering a more positive perception of each other.
- How can you help?
“Teaming Up For Hawijah” book-donation campaign
The inspiration for this campaign originated from the people of Hawijah themselves. We’re focusing on gathering donations of English-language books in the Netherlands. These books will be transported, and personally presented to several libraries in Hawijah in October 2024.
Why should you donate your unwanted English books?
On the one hand, there are very few English-language books available in libraries in Hawijah, and all of these are woefully outdated. Furthermore, university-level books are hard to find and very expensive to purchase in Iraq.
On the other hand, at the end of the academic year many students in the Netherlands get rid of the university books they no longer want to keep. Instead of throwing away these precious books, please donate to this good cause. This is a beneficial and environmentally friendly outcome for everyone.
DONATION POINT: Utrecht University City Centre Library, Drift 27, Utrecht (at service desk)
DURATION OF CAMPAIGN: May - June 2024
WE SEEK: new or gently used English (and Arabic) books in various categories:
- University Textbooks (across all disciplines)
- Technical books (e.g. internet & social media; computer; photography, electrical engineering etc.)
- Fiction (incl. Literary Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Novels etc.)
The first step of our campaign is to attempt to gather a significant number of books donated primarily by university students. Subsequently, we’ll follow this up with a crowd-funded fundraising campaign to cover the cost of shipping the books to Iraq.
A fundraising phase will be advertised after we’ve gathered a substantial number of book donations. So stay tuned for Phase 2!
Thank you for your kind and generous support!
For more information, email Mario Fumerton: m.a.fumerton@uu.nl or teamingupwithhawija@gmail.com
Our YouTube channel is @ExploringIraq
