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Zozan Hskan fled to Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq with thousands of other Yazidis more than four years ago, witnessing the death and destruction at the hands of the so-called Islamic State along the way.

Hskan's story echoes thousands of other Yazidis who escaped the genocidal campaign by IS against the practitioners of an ancient faith predating both Christianity and Islam, but it's also uniquely hers.

She seized the brief opportunity to slip into Kurdistan, where she was herded into a camp for "internally displaced people," reuniting with her husband and children in the process.

Later, Hskan risked a return to Iraq with her husband, who had worked as interpreter for the U.S. Army like so many other Yazidis, so the family would not have to restart their visa application.

And like hundreds of others who escaped execution or slavery imposed by IS beginning in 2014, Hskan landed in Lincoln just over a year-and-a-half ago, then the newest in what is the largest community of Yazidis in the U.S.

"I'm very happy I live in America, in Lincoln," Hskan said Wednesday night at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. "I love it here, it's very good for the Yazidi people."