Newsletter October
Dear friends,
we hope that you are all fine and send you greetings from Jinwar once
again. After a long and hot summer with a lot of progress in the
construction of the womens village, it is getting colder in these days,
the nights get longer and we expect the rain soon to come. We are happy
about all the work that has been done and thankful for all the people
that participated with their hands and ideas in this first building
season. The work with the kerpîç bricks is being paused now until next
spring and we are busy doing all kinds of preparations for the winter.
As the friends who came to help us preparing kerpîç stones all summer
long are gone, we are less people now and life here got a little more
quiet.
A few days ago we had our great Jinwar assembly, with all women of the
committee participating. We were looking back on the months that passed,
discussed the work and made plans for the winter. 21 houses have been
built until now, finally we finished their roofs and covered all of them
with tarps to protect them from strong rain. Despite water problems the
first gardening season was fruitful as well. We harvested many fruits
and vegetables in the garden, we prepared them together and ate the
dishes made from them. Now we prepare the garden for the new season.
Many women were visiting us and different groups were coming by almost
every day. We showed them around, worked together, discussed together,
danced together and collected lots of proposals for the building of the
village. For some groups we organized seminars of Jineolojî and we were
discussing a lot about the necessity of this village, about how we
imagine free women to live in a free society and about the steps we are
all making for this in our own lives.
Now as the autumn season began, the construction work will move more to
the inside of the houses. Doors and windows have to be made out of wood,
the floor has to be prepared, water system and electricity have to be
installed. For means of more light in the rooms and protection of the
walls we used white color to paint the first three houses from the
inside. We started to build small terasses in front of the houses and we
are collecting stones to make a little mosaic with the picture of
Shahmaran, the mythical woman figure you might know from kurdish and
middle eastern mythology. Until all 21 houses are really ready to live
in we will have a lot of work to do all winter, so that most of the
women will be able to move in in spring.
For actual pictures of Jinwar you can check our facebook pages:
Kurdish: https://www.facebook.com/Gundê-Jinwar-1043789715756805 [1]/
And english: https://www.facebook.com/jinwarwomensvillage
And there are a few more things we want to ask and inform you about:
First, we have a project for the next year: As you know Jinwar is
being built as an ecological village and as part of this we are looking
for sustainable ways of using energy. As we have a lot of sun here all
over the year, we want to find ways to use sun energy in Jinwar. Thus we
are looking for people (especially women) having knowledge about all
kinds of methods to use sun energy, as well as ways to get and install
solar panels. Do you have knowledge on that or do you know people who
might be motivated to support this project practically?
We are also looking for knowledge and ideas on recycling. Which
useful things can we make out of trash and old materials? We have a lot
of space to try. Do you have tips and experiences you can share with us?
We send greetings to all of you and are looking forward to hear from
your discussions and ideas!
Silav u rez,
the Commitee of JINWAR – Free Womens Village Rojava