Speeches Shim
Promoting a productive Iraqi SME ecosystem requires ensuring access to financing. Designed in 2014, USAID’s Middle East and North Africa Investment Initiative (MENA II) seeks to revitalize economic activity in post-ISIS Iraq by providing support to early stage businesses to promote sustainable job creation, improve business competitiveness, and encourage increased equity investment in early stage businesses.
Assistance to religious and ethnic minority communities in Iraq is a continuation of USAID's work to promote inclusive development in our partner countries, defend human dignity and religious freedom globally, and aid communities in times of need.
Despite obstacles due to the pandemic, The Sanad Center Preschool has worked tirelessly to adapt and continue to provide important educational opportunities for the children of Qaraqosh, as well as their families. In late September, the Sanad Center Preschool in Qaraqosh celebrated the successful graduation of all sixty members of its second cohort of preschool students. With new COVID-19 safety measures in place, the school was unable to hold a traditional ceremony with all families in attendance, but Sanad remains immensely proud of these students’ accomplishments.
Layla is a wife, mother, grandmother, and part of the Yezidi community from the Sinjar province in northern Iraq. Though she has been married since she was 16 years old, Layla, currently in her mid-60s, held an Iraqi civil ID that identifies her as “single”. Her marriage from half a century ago was never registered and therefore in the eyes of the government, Layla was never married - let alone a mother.
The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided nearly $60 million to Iraq to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
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