News
Archive of entries reporting our activities on an ongoing basis
A bakery, a reading room, an upholstery workshop… Every new workplace is our great success
The Great Job project was launched exactly three years ago in Qaraqosh, in the heart of the Nineveh Plain. During this time, we have already opened 73 workplaces for families from Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. The goal of this endeavor is to rebuild shops, workshops and...
read more![I did not want to be indifferent [Interview with Bart]](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bartosz-Rutkowski-1080x675.jpg)
I did not want to be indifferent [Interview with Bart]
Bartosz Rutkowski is the founder and the president of the Eagle Watch Foundation. He is also a retired officer of the Polish Army, where he served for 22 years. His biography includes many interesting memories. Parachute jumping, diving, even running away from the...
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A ‘fishing rod’ instead of a ‘fish’: the Great Job Project
The money spent on humanitarian aid and the number of people who received it do not matter. What is important is to achieve a simple goal. The assumption of the Great Job Project is to help families to become self-reliant. Apart from helping them financially, it also...
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The Volunteer (Interview with Dawid)
This article will be different than others. I will write about myself, and that is never easy. It will not be a perky story about adventures on a frontline. A lot has been said about that. But I would like to add a few words about myself.The reportage that has been...
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Helping in the time of the pandemic
The nationwide quarantine has already been lasting for more than six weeks. Whom have we managed to help during this time? Is providing help in such conditions possible at all?In Iraq, similarly to Poland, many restrictions and prohibitions have been imposed that aim...
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The return of ISIS – Should we expect the second clash?
In March last year, the media raced to report that the anti-terror coalition recaptured the village of Baghouz in Syria – the ‘last bastion of ISIS’. At the time, I published a short article [The world has announced a victory over ISIS. Rightly so?] which referred to...
read more![Helping brings me joy [Interview with Shamoo]](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Shamoo-1080x675.jpg)
Helping brings me joy [Interview with Shamoo]
This is an interview with Shamoo, the volunteer of the Shengal Charity Organization, which we have been collaborating with for almost three years. Shamoo is a very humble man with a huge heart. The only thing that matters to him is helping others, and this, as he...
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About small, human needs
Browsing through the data about war activities, crises, or even the coronavirus pandemic, it is difficult not to have the impression that the world loves statistics. Every day we observe charts and graphs presenting new infections. However, I will not relate to the...
read more![I fought for my land [Interview with Majid]](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Majeed-1080x675.jpg)
I fought for my land [Interview with Majid]
In 1991, he joined the Iraqi army, where he served for 6 years. He is a journalist. In 2014, when ISIS took Mosul, he did not hesitate for a moment. He joined a self-defense unit formed by the APP (Assyrian Patriotic Party), for which he was a spokesman. Majid is an...
read more![To hear the voice of Yazidis [Interview with Farhad]](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Farhad-Orla-Straż_Eaglewatch-1080x675.jpg)
To hear the voice of Yazidis [Interview with Farhad]
For more than two years, he has lived and studied in France. He left Iraq fleeing ISIS terrorists’ persecution. Now he is trying to spread awareness about the 2014 genocide of Yazidis as far as possible. He was a witness to that genocide. Farhad comes from Sinjar...
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![[A Close Point of View] How to help without harming?](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Jak-pomagac-aby-nie-zaszkodzić_Orla-Straż_autor-Dawid-Czyż-1080x675.jpg)
[A Close Point of View] How to help without harming?
The good can be found in almost each one of us, and sooner or later it somehow reveals itself. Only a very few individuals derive pleasure from seeing others’s suffering, and usually it’s a result of some kind of psychological disorder. Sometimes we are moved by the...
Helping. It makes sense.
When helping people in a country such as Iraq, it needs to be taken into consideration that not everything will always go according to a plan. The worst thing is powerlessness. In some cases, we are simply unable to help. There are complicated and costly medical...
Will the pandemic results bring another humanitarian crisis?
The situation in the world which we have been witnessing for several months is not conducive to humanitarian activities. Since March, many humanitarian organizations have been forced to stop their work in Iraq and Kurdistan.It was caused by the ‘lockdown’ which we...
![[A Close Point of View] What has happened to global terrorism?](https://www.orlastraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Gdzie-się-podział-globalny-terroryzm-1080x675.jpg)
[A Close Point of View] What has happened to global terrorism?
Has global terrorism ceased to threaten us? For a while, we haven’t heard about tragic attacks like the ones that happened between 2014 and 2017 in Paris, Nice, and Manchester. What has happened to global terrorism?If we analyze the news from the last months, we will...
Help during the time of the pandemic, part 2.
In March this year, a lockdown was imposed in Iraq which lasted until half of August. For a long time, many shops as well as roads between the provinces were closed. Humanitarian organizations halted their activities. Residents of camps for internally displaced people...
Different? Or worse?
The Third World. That is where war never ends. That is how it is over there. I have heard this many times about the place where we work and the people whom we try to help. Have you ever thought how divided our planet is based on stereotypes that have nothing to do...