JCFS prepares to present its results for 2015-2016 and has announced its AGM keynote speaker, Nafiya Naso, a member of Winnipeg’s Yazidi community. Earlier this spring, Nafiya joined JCFS as a settlement worker to facilitate the rescue and resettlement of the Yazidi refugees.

The 2014 vicious attacks on the Yazidi people spurred Nafiya on to become an activist and a spokesperson on behalf of her community. Since engaging in this cause, she has helped to bring awareness to the situation of her people and is one of the driving forces behind Operation Ezra, a community-wide fundraising effort to sponsor Yazidi refugees to Winnipeg. Her commitment to this initiative is the embodiment of the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) value “…Not for Myself Alone”, the theme of this year’s AGM.

Born in 1989 to a Yazidi family in northern Iraq, Nafiya will tell the story of the journey that brought her to Winnipeg’s Jewish community and the beautiful partnership that has brought our two communities together around our common values to help Nafiya and her community in their plight.