Abbreviation CYCI Founder Steve Maman Website LiberationIraq.com | Formation June 2015 Leader Steve Maman | |
Focus Anti-Sex Slavery,Combatting Human Trafficking | ||
The Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq or CYCI foundation is a Canadian non-profit organization that aims to free Christian and Yazidi women captured and forced into sex slavery by ISIS. Since June 2015, the non-profit has claimed to have freed over 140 Yazidi women and girls.
Contents
History
Steve Maman, a Montreal businessman founded the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq in June 2015. Maman often visited Morocco and Iraq to purchase vintage cars to bring them back for his classic car dealership based in Montreal. During this time, he made contacts that would go on to help build his network of brokers within the ISIS-controlled areas.
In August 2015, Gill Rosenberg, the first female foreigner to join YPJ forces fighting ISIS joined the organization as a volunteer.
Negotiations
The CYCI foundations is primarily involved in negotiating with brokers in ISIS controlled territories for the release of captured Yazidi women and girls. The organization releases funds to their members based in Iraq who pay brokers for releasing the women. The organization first takes the rescued women and girls internally displaced persons camp in Kurdistan and later makes efforts to re-unite them with their families. CYCI raises funds through donations made on the official website and through crowdfunding portals including GoFundMe. According to Maman, each rescue costs between $1000 to $3000.
Criticism
Members of the Yazidis community which includes Babasheikh Kherto Ismael, the Yazidi spiritual leader,and those involved in outreach and humanitarian support dispute Maman's work and call for a greater transparency and oversight in the work with minority populations fleeing Iraq.