WRO team conducted a follow up activity in Batnaya village (putting and decorating of the Christmas tree ) 60 people participated in this activity 15 females and 45 males from Batnaya, Telkef center Sada and Baweza villages ( 25 Arab Suni, 2 Arab Shea, 3 Shabak Suni, 6 Shabak Shea, 4 Kurd Suni, 1 Turkuman Suni, 5 Turkuman Shea, 12 Christians and 1 Yazidi ).
the activity conducted in coordination with the priest of Batnaya Father Aram and Telkef municipality and a group of youth volunteers, the youth cleaned a big yard which the tree planned to be there it was a huge yard and full of rubble the volunteers bring a grader machine to remove the rubble clean it and equalization the land they install the tree decorate it in the first day all of them were helping each other in decorating, cleaning and preparing themselves to the second day activities, in the second day the entertainment activities for the kids started at 1:30 among games, dancing and one volunteer dressed Santa clothes and played with the kids then distributed gifts for them.
This was the first time such activities were, the Christmas tree installed in Batnaya after liberation and Batnaya people returning, Batnaya for the first time, people were so happy and excited for this activity all of them came to the yard and took photos with their family members beside the tree and many of them said we will send these photos to our relatives outside Batnaya they will see the photos and see Batnaya is safe and nothing is there and they might come back to the village again. they were so happy and excited to tell their relatives and friend that we came to Batnaya and it was not a bad decision by us to come back to Batnaya because in many occasions they mentioned that many Christians blaming the returnee that why you go back to Batnaya it is not safe how you trust to go back their again.
Many community leaders participated and came to this activity , Mosul television channel cover the activity through preparing a 10 minuities report , many famous Facebook pages in Mosul posted the activity on their pages, these had a great impact on the activity by showing as much as people the welling of the different ethnoreligious groups in Ninawa plain to life together peacefully.
Batnaya witnessed one of the fiercest attacks on it by ISIS, as it was inhabited by more than a thousand families. The war destroyed more than 250 houses completely, and such a number partial destruction. International organizations contributed to the restoration and rehabilitation of about 370 houses. It is a Christian village that is why ISIS attack was sever on it.
