Supported by the German Federal Foreign Office in Erbil, Earth Sisters aims to upskill and increase the capacity of women and girls in Duhok on climate change and its links to gender-based violence.
The project is part of our core Climate Change pillar, which we launched earlier this year, and has seen 50 Earth Sisters trained in order to highlight gender injustices, women’s rights, and crucially, the vital role women and girls can play in climate change response.
Following the training, they will lead a range of initiatives to raise community awareness about environmental issues affecting the region, which will be facilitated and supported by the Lotus Flower. They will also increase awareness of the ways in which climate change exacerbates GBV, while also identifying ways of reducing the risks.
Earth Sisters is especially important as Iraq has been ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of climate change. The country is facing impacts of large population growth, multiple wars and poor land planning, as well as higher temperatures and decreasing rainfall.
CASE STUDY
Mahabad is one of the first women to take part in the project, and she says: “Being chosen as one of the 50 Earth Sisters made me happy, and I was very excited to participate in the training sessions – to gain knowledge, meet new friends and stop the process of overthinking which I had been suffering from.”
