April 1, 2022

 We were very happy to welcome Elder Randy Funk, First Counselor in the Middle East/Africa North Area Presidency, and his wife, Andrea, to Kurdistan to show them the site of the Nursing and Midwifery Development Center which the Church is building in Kurdistan to bring safer nursing and midwifery skills to save newborn lives and help mothers more safely deliver their babies.

To start off the visit we introduced Elder and Sister Funk to Eva Said (standing next to Barbara) who is the person who will head the Nursing and Midwifery Center (NMDC). This Center has been Eva’s dream for Kurdistan for many years.  At the dinner she presented Barbara with this beautiful bouquet of flowers to thank her for putting all the facts together and writing the proposal that was submitted to Latter-day Saint Charities.


Eva and Sister Funk enjoyed getting to know each other.


Eva and her husband, Nazim, presented the Church with a letter of appreciation and gratitude for funding the construction of this vitally needed Center.


Here we all gathered for a group photo of celebration: Barbara, Eva, Nazim, Elder and Sister Funk, Jim, Brother and Sister Standage (serving in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq), and Boyce Fitzgerald, who heads up Temporal Affairs for the Church in the Middle East/Africa North Area (ME/AN).


The following morning we headed to the site of the new NMDC.  It is a beautiful location just down the road from the new US Consulate under construction.


Here we are at the site:  (L to R) Steve and Karla Standage, Jim and Barbara, Sister and Elder Funk, Nazim and Eva Said, Bareem (Eva’s assistant), Boyce Fitzgerald.


After touring the site, we adjourned to a small municipality office where we introduced Elder and Sister Funk to the woman who is donating the land the NMDC will sit on.  Shirin Amedi (center) is one of the first female soldiers (Peshmerga) in Kurdistan who fought for Kurdistan’s independence.  She is now a very influential person in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and a strong proponent for improving the situation of women in Kurdistan.  She has hoped for a center like this for a long time and is thrilled the Church will be building it on the ground she has so generously provided.


Here we have a group photo of (L to R) Brittany Stirling of the Stirling Foundation which will be providing the funding for all of the state-of-the-art simulation equipment in the NMDC, Elder and Sister Funk, Shirin Amedi, Eva and Nazim Said.


We enjoyed listening to Shirin Amedi’s hopes for the future of nursing and midwifery care in Kurdistan.


The Municipality was happy to host us and took lots of photographs as well.


A final group photo at the Municipality.


Our next stop was Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), our major charity partner in Kurdistan.  Here Elder Funk is officially introduced to BCF President Musa Ahmed.


Barbara and Jim listening to the official welcome by President Ahmed.  To Barbara’s right is

Gulstan, one of BCF’s public affairs officers.


Another perspective of the President’s official welcoming room.


After the welcoming BCF presented us an official Kurdish lunch.

The gentleman to the right of President Ahmed is Karzan Noori, our principal working contact at BCF.


After lunch BCF presented an update for Elder Funk and Brother Fitzgerald of several of the projects we are currently working on… in particular our water borehole drilling project to bring water to areas of Kurdistan without water and the wheelchair project where we distribute thousands of wheelchairs to disabled Kurds and many who have lost limbs due to the bombs that ISIS buried throughout Kurdistan.


A group LDSC-BCF photo after our meetings.


After our meetings, BCF escorted us to the historic Citadel for a private tour.  The Citadel is the longest continually inhabited place in the world…. over 6,000 years.  It is a tall mound that has hosted several civilizations including the Assyrians.  The top layer is home to buildings begun in the Ottoman Empire.


We were hosted by the former mayor of Erbil who was born in the Citadel.  Currently there is only one family still resident there.


Jim in the courtyard of one of the restored homes in the Citadel. It was almost like a Kurdish “Pompeii”.


Barbara at one of the ancient restored homes in the Citadel.


One of the doorways within one of the homes and an inscription to Allah.


An Ottoman Empire home…. These were single family units!


Following are a few pictures in one of the houses…


House interior….


House interior….

A beautiful door to what seems must have been a very special area…


House interior with stairway to storage cellar….


House courtyard…


House courtyard….


Internal atrium area…


Another view of atrium area….


Another view of atrium area…. The fruit in the center is a prop as they were going to be filming a movie in the afternoon…


Small door off the atrium…


Inside another restored building that they allow to be rented out for weddings and celebrations.


Jim on location in the Citadel…


We also toured the Kurdish textile museum inside the Citadel… beautiful very old rugs made by hand…


It was interesting to see the collections of ancient jewelry….


A Kurdish headdress…. a variation of this is still worn today… The Kurdish people are very proud of their heritage and their traditional dress. Many wear it year round.  There are many holidays throughout the year and an even larger group wears all the traditional clothes on those holidays.


Kurdish shoes they used to wear….


Jim found the museum very interesting…


How they made the rugs…


A typical Kurdish one-room house… meals are on the floor and blankets for the night are folded and piled on the piece of furniture …. This arrangement is still used today in many of the villages… and even in the city, homes have a variation of it.  There often is very little furniture and meals are on the floor…

Barbara and Geri collaborate on a Kurdish rug with the weaver…


We visited on a Kurdish holiday and many children visiting the Citadel and the museum were dressed in their Kurdish  outfits.


Traditional Kurdish dress…


Young girl in Kurdish dress….


Traditional Kurdish dress…


Traditional Kurdish dress…


At the end of our tour we had a little rest and were treated to….


A beautiful glass of freshly squeezed orange juice!


The obligatory group photo at the end of our tour of the Citadel.




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