Building Resilience of Youth and Communities Against Violent Extremism and Radicalization Project (BRYC) - Year 2

Iraq Foundation implements the BRYC project in seven locations in the provinces of Salaheddin (Tikrit and Al-Dur), Anbar (Fallujah and Ramadi), Mosul (Hamdaniya and West Mosul) and Baghdad (Karrada) with the support of the Dutch government and in cooperation with local partner organizations. The project aims to strengthen the resilience of youth and communities against violent extremism throughout Iraq, and notably in areas liberated from ISIS, by strengthening local communities’ prevention of conflict and violent extremism. The project works to enable these communities to confront violence and promote civil peace through mediation and negotiation, mentor school students, advocate for the activation of programs and activities to prevent violent extremism and extremist ideology, spreading concepts and practices of moderation, tolerance, diversity, acceptance of others, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and advocacy for the role of teachers, school and university students in combating extremism and promoting peace. In this reporting period, Activities 6, 7 and 8 were carried out in three of the four provinces except Baghdad. These activities are all linked to Objective 2 and include periodic meetings of PVE leaders (PVE-trained professionals, teachers and community leaders - Activity 6), community outreach meetings of the PVE leaders and Women Leaders (Activity 7), and one consultation meeting per location between PVE-leaders to evaluate Year 1 strategies and achievements of the project (Activity 8). These activities will still be conducted in Karrada (Baghdad province) after the conclusion of the PVE-training for professionals and teachers (Activity 3a), in order to have the PVE-trained leaders for Activities 6, 7 and 8. The delay of this activity in Baghdad was linked to the prior relocation of the project from Zaafaraniya to Karrada, which required IF’s consultations with the Directorate of Education of that area to identify schools and teachers to participate in the project’s activities. As a result, IF obtained the approval to train 9 teachers on PVE, and have them use their PVE knowledge in 4 schools in the Karrada district: Eastern high school for boys, Eastern High School for Girls, Al Kumait middle school for Boys and Tigris High School for Girls. With the start of the new term for schools in early November, IF began the training of PVE leaders, including teachers, (Activity 3a) in Baghdad and continued the training during the following reporting period (3rd Quarter, Year 2). After Activity 3a is complete in Karrada, Activity 5 will be implemented there as well. In this Activity teachers promote critical thinking among students and instill concepts of moderation and tolerance. Teachers are also expected to meet with the students’ families, if early signs of radicalization are identified and to provide referrals when needed. - In the three other provinces Activity 5 was started in November, and the first teacher reports reached us in the following reporting period in late December. This adaptation of the project’s schedule was linked to the situation in schools, where prior to November there was no regular classroom teaching to allow for applying PVE concepts, but exams were conducted for all stages of students. In addition, in October 2021 schools were turned into polling stations for the parliamentary elections. As a consequence, IF partner NGOs focused their efforts in Salaheddin, Anbar and Mosul on Activities 6, 7 and 8: Through these meetings between PVE leaders and with their communities the leaders started developing plans on how to monitor cases of extremism in the future and how best to make referrals, both of which are showing the way forward to sustainable mechanisms to prevent and counter violent extremism in the targeted areas. (see Activity 6).