IRAQ: ‘I have found my home’ says young refugee driven out by jihadists

As a child Yohana Yaqoob Abdeesh Al-Zeebaree lived in the northern Iraqi city of Duhok in 2014, when jihadists from Daesh (ISIS) overran the Nineveh Plains and began expanding their control over large parts of northern Iraq.

A Chaldean Catholic graduate from the Catholic University of Erbil (CUE), he told a crowded hall that he “never had a clear path” until he was offered a scholarship by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to attend the university. 

In a powerful speech to his fellow graduates, and staff at CUE, he said he was just “an oblivious kid” not aware of what was happening the first time his family relocated.

But within a short time he learned that his uncle had been kidnapped, his father had a stroke, and his older brother was risking his life to fight Daesh.

Speaking about his brother, he said: “He was gone for a while and every day my mother would fall asleep with her prayer beads in her hands praying for his safe return.”

He also said: “I want to tell you that the way forward is rarely straight. I always thought that the way forward was knowing where I was going but now I know that the way is made by walking. 

“Every time when you don’t know what’s ahead finding your way is built from every wrong, every struggle, every fresh start and in my case, every goodbye.”

With each relocation he said: “I thought this is the place I would stay, but I was wrong.”

He recalled the funeral of an uncle who had been kidnapped, and later his father suffered a stroke who went from being a man who could read books, write songs and poetry to a parent who “suddenly couldn’t utter a word”.

He then told the students on 30^th September that his life turned around when he entered the ACN-funded Pope Francis Scholarship Scheme to study International Relations and Diplomacy at CUE.

He said: “Things were starting to look up finally where slowly Erbil started to become a home and I can with full confidence tell you, I thought this is the place I’d stay, and this time I was right.

“I have found my home here with the help of CUE and my family at ACN but not only that, I also got the chance to work at the university and every day that I come into work, I am giving back to the family that welcomed me when I most needed them.”

He added: “Today as we graduate, we don’t stand here as people who always knew how to find their way, we stand here as people who walked it anyway through uncertainty, through change and through struggle and made us stronger, more resilient and unstoppable and there’s one thing I know no matter what – how many times the road disappears you can always find a new one and go forward and maybe that’s finding the way home.”

An initiative of the Chaldean Catholic Church, CUE celebrated its 10th anniversary at the graduation.

The educational institution opened its doors in 2015 as Iraq’s first private nonprofit university.

After CUE’s initial construction was funded by the Italian Bishops’ Conference, ACN followed with funding for new wings for architecture and medicine, laboratories and a modern library. 

More than 65 percent of the student body study on full scholarships, most of which are funded by ACN.