Mission
To protect rights, empower communities, and strengthen systems.
EED is a women-led, local NGO in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, working to create a future where everyone can thrive by protecting rights, empowering communities, and strengthening systems. We promote gender equality and work to end gender-based violence; protect children and promote the healthy development of children, adolescents, and youth; combat human trafficking and uphold survivor rights; and improve mental health and well-being. Through transformational services, community development, capacity building, and policy and advocacy, we support individuals, communities, and institutions to create sustainable impact.
SEED was co-founded by Sherri Kraham Talabany and Tanya Gilly Khailany to answer a need that crisis in Iraq had made impossible to ignore: survivors of violence had few places to turn, and the institutions meant to protect them lacked the capacity to do so. What began as a direct response to that gap has grown into a permanent local institution — one that delivers services to survivors, builds the capacity of the systems around them, and presses for policy and legal reform that outlasts any single project.
Today SEED is a women-led, local organization staffed by Kurdish and Iraqi professionals — social workers, psychologists, lawyers, case managers, trainers, and researchers — who work where they live. That composition is deliberate: the people delivering the work are from the communities the work serves, which is what allows SEED to hold long-term trust with survivors and to remain a credible partner to government institutions across the Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq.
- Board of Directors
- Sherri Kraham Talabany President & Executive Director
- Tanya Gilly Khailany Vice President & Co-Founder
- Policy & Advocacy
- Partnerships & Communications
- Programs Director of Programs
- Gender Equality & GBV
- Child Protection
- Anti-Trafficking
- Mental Health & Psychosocial Support
- Dr. Neven Wali Director of Operations
- Finance
- Human Resources
- Grants & Compliance
- Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning
Who We Are