JINHA

QAMIŞLO – The Rojava Free Women's Foundation has opened the fourth preschool in the Rojava city of Qamişlo, aimed at helping children overcome the psychology of war and grow in an environment that respects their cultures and languages.

Foundation director AxinAmed said that the goal of the opening of the trilingual preschool in Qamişlo'sQenatilsiwes Neighborhood is to provide children an environment where they can experience their own cultures, long impossible in Ba'ath-ruled Syria.

"We didn't get to learn our own native languages," said Axin. "We couldn't live in our own cultures. We made it to today under the current system, but the nurseries we open will ensure that now children can grow up and get an education in their own culture."

Under the Ba'ath regime, explained Axin, nurseries had been expensive, but the new preschool aims to reach all children in the neighborhood. At the same time, the preschool aims to help children who have grown up with years of Daesh and Al-Nusra attacks on the Rojava cantons. The educational program (in Kurdish, Arabic and English) is designed with the goal of helping these children heal after the war.

"We will be working individually with children to help their psychological state," said Axin. "Children will gain confidence in these educational spaces."

At the opening yesterday, children read poems and sang songs to mark the opening. They danced traditional line dances and cut the ribbon on the preschool.

(rs-zk/mg/cm)