The people in the Southern Kurdistan refugee camp Makhmur have a common history: they were all expelled from their homeland by the Turkish government in the course of the village evacuations in the nineties. Their escape ended after many stops twenty years ago in the desert near the city of Hewlêr (Erbil). Here, under the protection of the United Nations, a refugee camp was established, which manages itself and has its own schools, its own health care, cultural and women's centers.

One of the inhabitants of the camp, which now resembles a small town with comparatively good infrastructure, is Elî Mûsa Mijînî. "The Turkish state has driven us from our land and fields, from our mountains and gardens. Our villages were burned down and destroyed. We were forced to flee. Nevertheless, we never stopped cultivating the soil. We have not given up our culture. When we came to Makhmur, here was a desert. There was no water. We made an orchard out of the desert. Now everything is alive here, there are trees and gardens everywhere, "he says.

Many fruit trees grow in Makhmur. The harvest is shared among the residents.