Some of you may have already met Ms Adiba Qasim at the Institut Montana or our last Gala in Bad Ragaz. She is a Yazidi woman who had to flee the genocide that took place on her people in 2014. She managed to reach Switzerland, where she is attending the University of Geneva and engaging in activism for human rights - and specifically refugee rights.
Since publishing our school book «Speak Truth to Power» we have been working with other young activists here in Switzerland. In order to prepare the pupils for their visit, we decided to make new activist profiles based on the same principle as the ones in our book. The first activist on which a profile was made, is Adiba Qasim.
Adiba was born in Iraq and spent most of her life in the village of Khanasor in the Sinjar district. After the genocide by IS in 2014, Yazidi men were forced into the military, while women and children were raped, kept as slaves and turned into child soldiers. Adiba, her three siblings, and her parents were among the few people who managed to escape to a refugee camp in Turkey. She arrived in Switzerland in 2017 and now lives in Geneva. With the support of a special program for refugees called “Horizon Academic”, she was able to attend University. Adiba has participated in several events for RFK Human Rights Switzerland.
We also made a special edition of Adiba’s profile for younger pupils, with special drawings made by Laura Lembo (instagram: lolo.portfolio).
The profile was developed with the help of funding provided for by the Brockenhaus Stiftung.