Tigris Center

Literacy and Community Development

Our programs are focused on education, mental health support, life skills training, and small-scale aid distribution. We have tried to decrease the gap between foreign and local teachers, and we have local staff assisting in managing the daily classes.

The educational programs focus on Arabic and Kurdish literacy, English courses, practical children’s courses (sports, art, drawing, life lessons, etc.) and specialized tutoring courses (helping a student on a subject they struggle with in school).

Mental health support happens most times in the form of one-on-one classes, but also in a class setting. In the class setting, the teacher will teach life lessons on the value of people, handling money, etc. In a one-on-one setting, the teacher is usually helping a student work through sensitive issues that aren’t appropriate for a class setting.

Life skills training currently is only focused on cooking and baking classes.

Small-scale aid distribution – as we go and visit families who are struggling financially, we at times take small gifts of food or household items along. Some of these families receive this gift on a somewhat regular basis, others receive it as a one-time gift.