Sartip Vim - Humans of Kurdistan

Dec 08 2022

December 8, 2022

“I studied at the College of Electronics at university. I've never worked in this field, even after graduation. Instead, we bought land in our area and created a self-sustaining environment. I spend most of my days here with the land, with trees and crops. I know that nature is the cure for all ailments. It makes me very comfortable and happy, and I also take pictures. When taking pictures in my village and talking to the villagers, I learned that local seeds are now very scarce. This issue hurt my heart. I decided that when I go to the village, I will collect local seeds and bring them to plant in my garden. I collected dozens of local seeds and will plant them in the spring. I'm still collecting. And later, I will distribute them to the villagers and farmers. I want everything to be natural as before.” ...

Nov 24 2022

November 24, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of North

“I’m a nomad. I have been shepherding for 45 years. I opened my eyes among the animals. The nomad way of life is inherited from our ancestors. Our life is on these plains and mountains. All our lives are spent in the mountains and tents. My two children were born in a tent in the mountains. No matter how amazing migration looks from the far, it has many challenges and difficulties. With the arrival of the Spring, we go from Şirnak mountain by mountain to the border towns. Because of meadows and pastures, we take our herd, sheep, and cattle, to the plateaus near the borders. We stay there for five months and then return to Şirnex along the same route. During January, we stay in tents in the mountains of the Hezex district of Sirnak. Our livelihood is based on sheep and cattle.” ...

Nov 20 2022

November 20, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of West

“My name is Hadda Dawd, and I’m in my 80s and from Sarekani. During the attacks of the Islamic forces and Turkish army in 2019 on Sarekani, we left the area to save ourselves. However, my son was martyred while defending the city. The news was so heart-wrenching, and I was a refugee at the same time. I didn’t know to worry about what. Since becoming refugees, we have been relocated to the Washokani Camp in Al Hasakah, and we are still waiting for the news of our return. Our sorrow has exceeded all boundaries; being away from our homeland is difficult. Three years after being in the camp as a refugee, I started building a room out of mud to protect us from the coldness of winter, which would reach us soon.” Hasakah | @vimfoundationkrd ...

Nov 13 2022

November 13, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of East

“Twelve years ago, I became disabled because of an accident. It makes me proud that through my will and the support of my family and friends, the disability could not hold me from working and living. Even though the situation is dreadful now, but life is all about struggling. Since my teenage years, I became interested in my mother tongue, and later I became more invested in language through the writings of Hazhar and Hemn. Through reading their literature, I mastered writing and speaking in the Kurdish language fluently. Furthermore, I bought Kurdish language books and eventually became an instructor for the Kurdish language. For now, I am a volunteer lecturer in our village. I teach Kurdish language to the children who are the hope of our future. They come to me after the end of their school day, they come to my home, and I teach them their mother tongue.” ...

Nov 09 2022

November 9, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of North

“In the village, the work is more on the woman's shoulder. We get up early in the morning and work until the evening. The works are all challenging, and one of baking bread. Some days I bake three baskets of bread. The number of baskets increases when we go out to the hills in the spring. For months we stay in the swamps. While there, we do our work still. It isn't easy to make, no matter how tasteful the oven bread is. For hours we stay in front of the fire and inside the smoke. I don't know, but they say this smoke harms human health. Some even say smoke causes cancer. It might be true. Even if it is true for us, we continue making it. There is a danger in making oven bread. If one is not careful, she may fall into the oven. Sometimes we hear that some women fall into the oven and are burnt alive. It really breaks our hearts. That's why we pay much attention when we bake bread.” ...

Nov 07 2022

November 7, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of South

“I don’t recall how long I have been a hawker, but I know there isn’t a street in this city that I haven’t passed through hundreds of times. I have gone into every neighborhood while daydreaming. They have called me different names since I remember; the children call me the “old man” and the women call me “the hawker man.” And sometimes, they even call me the Cheerful Hajji. The names don’t matter to me; selling my products does. I’m happy when I see an old man and sell him nail clippers; he prays well for me, or when I sell a pencil to a child, and they run to the end of the street in happiness. Differentiating and recognizing people is not hard for me; I have been going through these neighborhoods for a long time, and I can separate the good from the bad ones.” ...

Nov 02 2022

November 2, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of West

“I’m 50 years old and live in a village in Al Hasakah. Those who live in villages must depend on agriculture and animal husbandry. My two children and I depend on the agriculture of tomatoes, cucumber, and zucchini in the summer, and we sell the surplus and benefit from it. We also plant broom corn, use them to clean the house and animal barn, and sell the remaining ones. We do this so we won’t need plastic brooms, which don’t last long and cannot be used in cleaning the barn. Village life is difficult, but it is also meaningful. Everything you eat is unique to you. You plant it and also sow it. This has made me genuinely attached to the village lifestyle.” ...

Oct 31 2022

October 16, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of South

“Every day, from my village on the Iraq-Iran border, I walk for an hour to Pshdar’s Shene village to work on construction and farming; it takes me another hour to go back. I spent half of my life toiling; this face is not a face of a 30 years old man; I have seen the hardship of life. My brothers attended school, but I didn’t. However, I have four children, and I always tell them to study so they won’t end up like me. I show them my tired and wounded hands, so they focus on their future and study.” ...

Oct 31 2022

October 27, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of North

“Year after year, many professions disappear and become forgotten. My profession is one of those disappearing. In the old days, when there were no vehicles, transportation was done by horses, mules, and donkeys. They also needed saddles and carriages. So, carriages were a necessary thing to have. That's why our work was essential. They came to our workshop from far and wide. With the development of technology, there was no need for them, and carriage craft became irrelevant. There used to be many carriage workshops in this market. If I leave, no one will be left, and this profession will disappear and be forgotten. This truly makes me so sad.” ...

Oct 31 2022

October 31, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of South

“In 1977 I was doing my military service in Said Sadiq, and my profession was cobbling. I was cobbling the shoes and boots of the army men. Later, I returned to Akre and opened a shop. I have been in this profession for 42 years now, I’m really satisfied with it, and it has served my family and me pretty well. I open my shop for eight hours daily and fix shoes, school bags, and home equipment. In the 80s and 90s, people were fixing their shoes from four sides and were okay with it, so I had so many customers to the point that I had no time to answer anyone. But now people find it shameful to wear a shoe that has been cobbled, hence the profession is not as it used to be.” ...

Oct 23 2022

October 23, 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of East

“Because of my father’s occupation, I was born in Bandarabbas and grew up in the Arab city of Khorramshahr. Still, because of my love for Kurds and Kurdistan, I preserved my mother tongue in the best way possible, and I speak it fluently. I love the people of Kurdistan so much that I visit a couple of times during Newroz and Pir Shalyar and observe its beauty. Its people, nature, and everything else is exceptional and unique to me and put my emotions and soul at peace. My favorite memories are always those spent in Kurdistan.” ...

Oct 19 2022

October19 , 2022

by Sartip Vim

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in Humans of West

“I am Jihan Hasso from Qamishlo city. From a young age, art became my hobby, and my family noticed this. Hence, they developed my skills and trained me. My father does designs on wood, so I learned from him and started painting from an early age and also sold my art. It made me glad to depend on myself at a young age and have an income. Later, I wanted to do something special, so I started pyrography, making me the first person in the region to do this craft.” ...

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