“I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
August 3rd, 2024 marks ten years to the Yezidi Genocide that took place in Shingal, displacing over half a million Yezidis within the space of a few days. In those same days, around 1800 were murdered and massacred as ISIS swept into these ancient lands. Over 6417 men and women, girls and boys were abducted into the captivity of the Caliphate of the self pronounced Islamic State.
This decade has exposed 82 mass graves. It has created 2745 orphans. Ten years later there are still around 2600 Yezidis in the de facto Sharia Law Caliphate known as the Al Hol camp in Syria.
Dear friends, you joined hands with us a decade ago as you chose to take the road less traveled and expanded your hearts to embrace these wounded Yezidi people.
This tenth year is somehow different from every other year. It is of course the closing of a decade. Some of our students have in the last two months formally declared their parents to be dead, thus legally becoming head of their ( empty ) household.
This year is just different.
The Manager of the Shariya Municipality, Mr. Ismail Sulaiman Abdulkareem has given us permission to plant a small forest, Trees for Hope in Shariya, each tree representing a family that has come under our wing, a family that was taken into captivity. We have chosen to represent the families as some have as many as ten children who were in captivity.
We are humbly asking for your help to remember those who were in ISIS. To remember all the victims of this abomination. Those who also walk this “road less traveled'' not by choice, making their way through life with vague memories of childhood, yet no parents. Those who have survived this evil regime and are trying to rebuild their lives.
We desire to plant 350 trees each one honoring a family whose children were rescued from the slavery of the Caliphate.
The Municipality has given us three specific types of tree that we can plant, the cypress, the privet, and the chinaberry. Each tree must be two meters tall. Each tree will cost $50.
Our heart is to honarably remember, to remember the slain, to remember those whose lives were taken from them in a blink of time. To pray for those still lost in captivity with little chance of being redeemed and returned to the Yezidi community. And to continue to plant hope.
We desire to honor our students, and to pray for them to become the “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord“ of which Isaiah 63 speaks.
Will you dear friend, who has chosen "the road less traveled" donate a tree for the Trees for Hope Forest.
If you are able, please label your gift, Trees of Hope, or email us so that we will be able to purchase a tree in your name.
Ligustrum (Privet) Tree
Cypress Tree
The Chinaberry
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