Hope Hub

Hope Hub is the name of the community centre/coffee shop that we have opened right in the heart of the city of Slemani in the Kurdish Region of Northern Iraq.  It is in a great location on a bustling high street.

As shared in the section on our apprenticeship programme the Hope Hub was opened with the idea that it could make a great training ground for young people leaving the care system in Iraq.  However as Hope for Communities seeks to bring hope to all of the communities where we are working, we realised that the centre could also be an opportunity to serve and meet the needs of the local people.

We have lots of different ideas about how we can do this.  We have started running language cafes, as so many people have told us they learnt English to quite a high standard at school but the issue is they never get a chance to practice. Now they can come and practice chatting in English over a cup of coffee. We have other planned future events: book clubs, art workshops e and the like.

We also hope to serve the art community in our city by giving them a space to sell their artwork.   This has the dual purpose for us in that one wall in the Hub is bright and colourful, filled with amazing local artwork, but also is a way that we can help local people sell their art. As with many coffee shops in our city, Hope Hub is also set up to be a space where people can come to study and we have dedicated workstations for this. We also have a children’s play area as we know how great it is to find a space where your children can happily play while you socialise.

As the Hope Hub is our newest project it is still in its formative phase and we have a great team who are coming up with great ideas and ways to serve our community.  Watch this space to see how these ideas grow and develop!