Meet Browen, volunteer at the Hêvî Community Garden

Browen is a volunteer at the Hêvî Community Garden in Gawilan camp. She helps beneficiaries and supports our team members with their daily work. She is especially passionate about gardening, cooking and creating a safe and supportive environment for her family.

Here’s more from Browen in her own words:

1. Where do you live, and how long have you been there?
I have lived in Gawilan camp for six years with my husband and children. We came here from Syria because of the lack of safety during the war. The journey was very difficult but being together as a family has helped me find some stability and a sense of belonging.

2. What do you miss most about your homeland?
I miss being close to my wider family. I also have special memories of our home garden and the times I spent helping my mother with the plants.

3. What was your work before moving here?
I have always been a homemaker, caring for my family. Life has changed so much, but I try to carry forward the traditions of my home through gardening, cooking and raising my children.

4. What brings you happiness in your daily life?
Having my children around me. Even in difficult circumstances, being close to them makes me feel grounded and gives me strength.

5. What do you enjoy most about gardening?
Planting with my own hands. It gives me peace. My family and I enjoy growing many types of vegetables, and I especially love roses for their beauty and fragrance.

6. Do you enjoy cooking with what you grow?
Yes, very much. Vegetables from the garden have a natural flavour without chemicals. My children’s happiness when they enjoy the meals I prepare brings me great joy.

7. What is your family’s favourite meal together?
We all enjoy grilled dishes, and rice is something I could eat every day of my life.

9. What is a dish that connects you to your homeland?
There is a dish called Khubeiza, made from the common mallow plant. If I could cook one meal for someone special, it would be Khubeiza for my mother.

Khubeiza is made from the common mallow plant, which has a mild, dandelion-like taste and is typically harvested in the spring. Its leaves can be eaten raw in salads, cooked like other greens, or roughly chopped and sautéed with onions, garlic and a sprinkling of salt.

You may also like to read about another Syrian favourite leafy dish, Molokhia, which is made from jute mallow leaves. It has an earthy, spinach-like flavour with a silky, okra-like texture and is often cooked into a soup with chicken broth. You can try our gardener Noora’s recipe for Molokhia with Chicken.

9. Do you have hobbies outside of gardening and cooking?
Yes, I enjoy hairdressing, and I also love handicrafts, especially working with wool.

10. What advice would you give your younger self?
To focus on education

Life in Gawilan camp

Gawilan refugee camp is home to more than 10,000 people and 2,400 families who are primarily Kurdish and from the Syrian cities of Al Hasakah and Aleppo. Since 2017, we have been nurturing a sense of community in Gawilan through annual garden competitions and monthly garden awards. In 2022, we expanded our initiatives to include cooking competitions and school gardening activities. In 2024, we opened a new community garden, Hêvî (which means ‘hope’ in Kurdish), where families can grow nutritious food and learn new skills together.

Helping gardens and communities to thrive

Your support enables us to provide seeds, plants and trees so that families in Gawilan camp can grow food, connect with one another in community gardens and create green spaces of hope. Our gardening activities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are run for and by displaced people living in the camps.

Team members like Rûken, Garden Facilitator and Othman Qewas, Garden Coordinator in Gawilan camp play a vital role in this work. While Browen volunteers her time, many of our activities also create employment opportunities for displaced people, helping families to build both skills and livelihoods.

Support our work

With your help, we can employ more displaced people, provide more seeds and plants, and help families across the camp to grow food and transform their neighbourhoods into green, hopeful spaces. Donate today to make this possible.

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