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Weaving their way to hope
Friendship International, a Monument-based organization, has been extending friendship to the Kurds for more than 20 years.
The plight of young Kurdish girls in eastern Turkey is of particular concern to the organization, since many of them are illiterate and unskilled. These girls are prime targets for terrorist-recruiting groups.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own homeland. There is no official Kurdistan for the 30 million Kurds of the world. They are scattered across four different countries of the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria. Their slogan is: “No friends but the mountains.”
Monument resident Max Hatfield, with Friendship International, has opened a door of hope for these young girls through a small carpet workshop in eastern Turkey.
There, girls are being trained to weave kilims, Kurdish tribal flat weaves, which are brought to the United States and sold. Proceeds from the sale of the kilims are used to pay for, health care and their basic reading and writing education, giving the girls the possibility of rising beyond their circumstances.
The girls are no longer attracted by the recruiting efforts of terrorist groups. Instead, they dream of higher education, becoming an educated mother passing on values of tolerance and reason to her children.
Friendship International will exhibit and sell kilims at Serranos Coffee Shop in Monument from 5 to 8 p.m. Nov. 1. While there, enjoy a free cup of tea, Turkish style.
The purchase of a weaving makes a difference in a young girl’s life and supports peacemakers in the Middle East.
The plight of young Kurdish girls in eastern Turkey is of particular concern to the organization, since many of them are illiterate and unskilled. These girls are prime targets for terrorist-recruiting groups.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own homeland. There is no official Kurdistan for the 30 million Kurds of the world. They are scattered across four different countries of the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria. Their slogan is: “No friends but the mountains.”
Monument resident Max Hatfield, with Friendship International, has opened a door of hope for these young girls through a small carpet workshop in eastern Turkey.
There, girls are being trained to weave kilims, Kurdish tribal flat weaves, which are brought to the United States and sold. Proceeds from the sale of the kilims are used to pay for, health care and their basic reading and writing education, giving the girls the possibility of rising beyond their circumstances.
The girls are no longer attracted by the recruiting efforts of terrorist groups. Instead, they dream of higher education, becoming an educated mother passing on values of tolerance and reason to her children.
Friendship International will exhibit and sell kilims at Serranos Coffee Shop in Monument from 5 to 8 p.m. Nov. 1. While there, enjoy a free cup of tea, Turkish style.
The purchase of a weaving makes a difference in a young girl’s life and supports peacemakers in the Middle East.
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