ERBIL, Iraq — The ongoing rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria and the highly unstable security situation in these countries have resulted in the movement of more than 1.5 million internally displaced people and refugees fleeing into the more secure Iraqi Kurdistan.

As camps grew last year, often sheltering people in appalling conditions, one man decided to welcome hundreds of displaced families in his own way: by giving their children the best education he can in a region where many refugees struggle to meet their most basic needs. Father Douglas al-Bazi, the manager of the Mar Elia camp, told Al-Monitor, “We lost the battle, not the war. My generation? We are the losers, but we can provide a future to our kids.”

Inside a crowded library, a young girl sitting on a white leatherette sofa starts playing Christmas songs on her guitar. Next to her, her friend practices his violin skills before his afternoon lesson. “I love this machine,” said Rwaid, a 14-year-old boy from Qaraqosh, an Assyrian town in northern Iraq. “There was nothing like this in my old city,” he said, gripping the instrument that he now plays every day. He wants to become a musician.