Nadia's Initiative

Nadia’s Initiative is on a mission to create a world where women are able to live peacefully and communities that have experienced trauma and suffering are supported and redeveloped. We advocate — at the local, national, and international levels — for resources and policy changes needed to protect and support survivors of sexual violence and rebuild communities in crisis. We collaborate with global leaders, governments, and international organizations to raise awareness and direct critical funding necessary to making positive, meaningful change.

Advocacy: The Initiative’s advocacy work focuses on ending the use of women and girls as weapons of war and ensuring survivors’ voices are heard. We seek justice through fighting to hold perpetrators accountable and enabling survivors to heal and rebuild their lives. We also advocate to ensure that communities in crisis are not forgotten by working to restore basic resources, services, and security in fragile regions. Currently, we are focusing our efforts on rebuilding Nadia Murad’s ancestral homeland in Sinjar, Iraq, which was systematically destroyed by ISIS in 2014.

Programs: Nadia’s Initiative is uniquely positioned to facilitate the re-development of Sinjar, Iraq due to its extensive knowledge and understanding of the political, cultural, and economic complexities of the region. We bring a comprehensive peacebuilding approach to the process of rebuilding and recognize that reconstruction efforts must be developed locally - local solutions to local problems. This type of approach will empower survivors to play an active role in the peacebuilding process.

Nadia's Story: Human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence.  Her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, is a harrowing account of the genocide against the Yazidi ethno-religious minority in Iraq and Nadia’s imprisonment by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

Nadia’s peaceful life was brutally disrupted in 2014 when ISIS attacked her homeland in Sinjar with the goal of ethnically cleansing all Yazidis from Iraq. Like many minority groups, the Yazidis have carried the weight of historical persecution. Women, in particular, have suffered greatly as victims of sexual violence. After escaping captivity, Nadia began speaking out on behalf of her community and survivors of sexual violence worldwide.

Much of Nadia’s advocacy work is focused on meeting with global leaders to raise awareness of the genocide against the Yazidi people and the systemic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Nadia is the President and Chairwoman of Nadia’s Initiative, which actively works to persuade governments and international organizations to support the sustainable re-development of the Yazidi homeland, as well as survivors of sexual violence globally.