Earlier this year, the Polus Center completed its two-year Wings of Peace Mosul project, funded by the D. H. Ross Foundation.
This program was a replication of Polus’ ongoing Wings of Peace program in Jordan and sought to bring the same quality of expressive arts-based trauma treatment model to Iraq. To date, the Polus Center and Jordanian its partner organization, Asia Development Training, have helped thousands of refugees who have suffered injuries and trauma, with prosthetics, mobility aids, expressive arts, and physical/psychological rehabilitation.
In just two years, Wings of Peace Mosul and the Al-Ghad League for Woman and Child Care (an Iraqi NGO and Polus Center partner) helped over 600 children, trained over 40 local professionals, and is now being offered as part of the curriculum in 10 public schools in Mosul.
Wings of Peace is a major step forward for the city of Mosul which was under violent ISIS occupation from 2014–2017, and in which time activities such as drawing and painting, and co-ed classes were forbidden.
The goal of Wings of Peace is to bring an effective model of psychological trauma services to more post-conflict regions of the Middle East.
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Michael and Eman in Jordan (Photo by Stephen Petegorsky)