After ISIS’s attacks in 2014, the family of Laila Murad Hasan and Murad Ali Ghard, including 6 girls and 1 boy, fled to the foothills of Sinjar mountain where they faced hunger, thirst, fear, and horror as they watched their friends and family die due to lack of medical services and resources. They spent the next few months sleeping on sidewalks and in partially destroyed buildings until they were able to move to IDP camps in the Kurdistan region. The camps brought them little to no reprieve - as they faced unbearably cold winters and hot summers, and continued to lack access to medical services, food, and employment.
After a period of displacement in the IDP camps, they returned home only to find their mud house partially demolished, destroyed by heavy rain, and looted. With nowhere to go, they were forced to live in these conditions of extreme poverty.