Zina Hamu, a Yazidi from Northern Iraq, had a dream to become a pediatrician. She was in the last year of school, when in 2014 ISIS terrorists occupied her hometown. Zina and her family needed to leave immediately.

For two years they were living in a refugee camp where Zina became a self-taught photojournalist. After the unexpected turn of events, she got a chance to apply for the university in Klaipėda, Lithuania – a city in a country she has never heard about before. This May she was announced as one of the winners of Emerging Young Leader Award for her work in documenting the lives of the Yazidi community.

Zina is one of the luckiest survivors of the ISIS invasion to Northern Iraq. Today, she is sharing her story for NYLA podcast.

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