Swedish Kurds help refugees with medical skills
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -When Nemam Ghafouri left her home in Stockholm to travel to Kurdistan, it was not to take up arms against the Islamic State group (ISIS). Even though her father and grandfather had both been Peshmergas, she herself had no fighting skills. But Ghafouri
had something just as valuable to offer on the frontlines: her medical skills as a doctor.
Ghafouri is among a growing number of Kurdish doctors in Europe who are offering their skills in the Kurdish war effort against ISIS.
"I was born in the mountains during war, so I know how it is to be a refugee and thought I could help them now," said Ghafouri, who has lived in Sweden for 35 years.
“The more you see the terrible situation of the refugees, the more you want to help them,” Ghafouri, who is originally from Koya in Iraqi Kurdistan, told Rudaw.
The Kurdish doctor is now back in Sweden, after a year of frequent visits to the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. She worked in Suruc, Kobani, Zaso and Duhok and ran a medical clinic for refugees from Kobani and Shingal, both areas that have suffered some of the worst devastations wrought by ISIS.
She recalled that hers was the first medical team to arrive in Shingal to help Yazidis after the devastating rampage by ISIS a year ago.
She recalled working despite daily ISIS attacks on the nearby Sharfuddin shrine.
"You have to overcome the fear," she said. "Because otherwise you lose and ISIS wins."
Lokman Atroshi, who is originally from Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan, also left his medical practice in Sweden to help the Kurdish cause.
Atrroshi, who has lived in Sweden for 21 years, donated his services to the Kurdish Medical Association (KLS), a volunteer group of 400 Kurdish doctors and students of medicine and dentistry in Sweden.
Atroshi has delivered medical supplies for camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Syria’s Kurdish regions, or Rojava.
He said he was shocked by what he saw among refugees fleeing the ISIS armies.
“Many refugees are traumatized after being abducted and raped by ISIS, especially Yazidi girls,” Atroshi told Rudaw, explaining his reason for helping.
”I wanted to do something for my people. It may be dangerous, but there is no one else to help them, so we can’t just leave them.”
Iranian-Kurd Shabnam Asadzadeh is now in Turkey to help refugees in Suruc, near Turkey's border with Kobani.
She has taken a break from nursing studies in Sweden, where she arrived five years ago from Iran. She was recently in Kobani, where more than 200 civilians were killed in June in ISIS suicide bombings. She helped families with food, medicine and money, collected through the Kurdish community in Sweden.
“For me, it makes no difference which part of Kurdistan, is suffering,” she told Rudaw. “This tragedy has struck my people and I will do what I can.”
The Kurdish medical association in Sweden (Kurdiska Läkarsällskapet, or KLS) was founded in 1988 in the immediate aftermath of the Halabja attack.
It describes itself as a non-political, non-religious, voluntary organization comprised of Kurdish medical and dental students and doctors based in Sweden. The main aim is to support healthcare in Kurdistan, the group had also helped in Rojava.
Sweden, home to one of the largest Kurdish communities in diaspora, has been under increasing pressure to step up support for Kurdish forces battling ISIS. Five members of the Swedish parliament are of Kurdish origin, representing around 100,000 Kurds who live in Sweden.