Armidale’s Ezidi community
Almost 400 Ezidis live in Armidale, after residents campaigned for the city to become a regional settlement location.
Most of the refugees are young families and, for the most part, are embracing their new lives.
The community has two football teams playing in the local competition.Hasan Halo plays in one of the community’s two new football teams.
There are weekly afternoon tea gatherings between Ezidi and other Armidale residents.
And new babies and weddings are on the horizon.
Nawaf Khalaf recently became engaged to Suham Elias in a gathering that involved almost all Ezidi in the city. Mr Khalaf said it came after a long struggle for his people that extended long before the genocide in 2014.
“In 2009, while I was getting my hair cut at the barber, a bomb detonated outside the shop,” he said.
“I was injured in the head and body, six others were killed, including my friend.”
Nawaf Khalaf was wounded in a truck bombing outside a barber shop in Shingal, Iraq.
The Ezidi say the 2014 genocide was the 74th in their history, and that all Ezidi in Australia have left terror and loved ones behind.
“There would not be a single family who has not experienced horrors,” refugee advocate Robin Jones said.
Dr Jones has worked in the humanitarian sector for almost 50 years and was key in bringing the Ezidi to Armidale.
“By horrors, I mean, perhaps the kidnapping of a family member in front of them,” she said.
“And then perhaps the parents have had to leave northern Iraq to come to Armidale in order to save their other children.
That’s a horror situation for any parent.
“And that, of course, adds to the feelings that they have here about not being able to bring their relatives: ‘Will my brother, will my uncle, will my parents survive, or will Islamic State also kidnap them?'”
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Armidale’s Ezidi community
Almost 400 Ezidis live in Armidale, after residents campaigned for the city to become a regional settlement location.
Most of the refugees are young families and, for the most part, are embracing their new lives.
The community has two football teams playing in the local competition.Hasan Halo plays in one of the community’s two new football teams.
There are weekly afternoon tea gatherings between Ezidi and other Armidale residents.
And new babies and weddings are on the horizon.
Nawaf Khalaf recently became engaged to Suham Elias in a gathering that involved almost all Ezidi in the city. Mr Khalaf said it came after a long struggle for his people that extended long before the genocide in 2014.
“In 2009, while I was getting my hair cut at the barber, a bomb detonated outside the shop,” he said.
“I was injured in the head and body, six others were killed, including my friend.”
Nawaf Khalaf was wounded in a truck bombing outside a barber shop in Shingal, Iraq.
The Ezidi say the 2014 genocide was the 74th in their history, and that all Ezidi in Australia have left terror and loved ones behind.
“There would not be a single family who has not experienced horrors,” refugee advocate Robin Jones said.
Dr Jones has worked in the humanitarian sector for almost 50 years and was key in bringing the Ezidi to Armidale.
“By horrors, I mean, perhaps the kidnapping of a family member in front of them,” she said.
“And then perhaps the parents have had to leave northern Iraq to come to Armidale in order to save their other children.
That’s a horror situation for any parent.
“And that, of course, adds to the feelings that they have here about not being able to bring their relatives: ‘Will my brother, will my uncle, will my parents survive, or will Islamic State also kidnap them?'”
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