For about a month already he comes in every morning, sits in the corner, smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee until the finish of the working day when he goes home.
He didn’t particularly talk to anyone, just sat by himself. One morning he came out to the corridor and asked the Responsible for the company, Herald, if he could go early that day and, of course, Herald agreed. It was not really ever a question, and so he left. And then I suddenly realized: “Are you paying him?!?”. And yes, Herald explained, they were. Herald explains that:
“There are no job interviews, CVs, work contracts, job descriptions, tax, workers rights, government or welfare state in the cantons. If you want to work somewhere, you go work there and they pay you”.
Herald, AcornAssociated
Unless, of course, they don’t want to. Herald elaborates on the family, community and organisation based conflict resolution system here:
“Families and community get involved to understand the emotional issues that are causing the conflicts. This is actually the ancient Kurdish conflict resolution system that has been used here forever”.
Herald, AcornAssociated
So when Herald setup a local Engineering company in the spring of 2022, they came. The company quickly grew to 14 staff that first month. Herald explains that when he went to register the new organisation at the local NGO offices they told him:
“Do not reject anyone”.
NGO Offices, Amude, Cezira canton
The Teal Diary 