War Kids Relief

War Kids Relief works with reputable NGOs in Iraq and Afghanistan to help implement our programs.

Iraq–Bustan Association for Children’s Media, Culture and Education (BACEMA)

BACEMA has been working in Iraq since May 2003. The organization has first started producing children’s materials such as comics, posters and magazines. It has issued 8 issues of a children-entertaining magazine called “Tatti’s Boat” in both Kurdish and Arabic languages. At the beginning the organization worked only in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq; but at the end of 2004 it has started opening new offices and recruiting and training new staff from other parts of Iraq including Baghdad.

The organization has rich and deep experience in child related educational, cultural and educational projects. It has trained the children themselves to produce their own materials such as plays and documentary films. The organization uses a local and Arabic originated, name “Bustan” which means a garden in order to be closer to children for whom it works and to be more acceptable by the public in Iraq as well as in other Middle East countries.

The organization has gained experience in conducting activity-based learning training and two-way of communications approaches thanks to its past and ongoing projects in these areas. We think children should first find the subjects that matter interesting, secondly they should learn through implementing activities, that is what called activity-based learning in order for them to chew the subjects not to swallow them.

The organization has effectively worked for the sake of children’s wellbeing in difficult circumstances. Through its entertaining approaches, the organization has directly benefited more than 250,000 Iraqi children while the indirect beneficiaries reach around 1 million children and caregivers

Afghanistan–Partnership for Education of Children in Afghanistan (P.E.C.A.)

P.E.C.A. believes that the education of children is the best means of achieving stability and safeguarding against extremist ideologies, and that education is also a source of joy and inspiration and an end unto itself. They believe that Afghan children are victims of circumstances beyond their control, and that one of the ways to ameliorate the past injustices that they have suffered is to provide them with an education. Education is a source of social and economic advancement as well as a vehicle for teaching children to be good citizens.

P.E.C.A. funds the construction or renovation, and subsequent operation, of schools for boys and girls, preferably in rural areas that historically have placed less emphasis on education. Their schools prepare students to be leaders at all levels of community, civic, and professional life. Students learn critical reasoning skills that enable them to reject extremist ideologies, and they gain perspectives on other world cultures in a setting that respects their own traditions, beliefs, and religious customs.