By — Zachary Green Zachary Green Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/yazidis-of-iraq-turn-to-truffles-to-make-ends-meet Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Yazidis, a religious minority in Iraq who have been persecuted by Islamic State militants, have turned to the sometimes dangerous job of searching for truffles for income. IEDs can be hidden in the fields. They earn about $8 on an average day for finding and selling about 6.5 pounds at the local market. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. ZACHARY GREEN: On a typical morning on Iraq's Mount Sinjar, Mata Mahmoud and his companions are hard at work…looking for truffles. Mahmoud and his friends are ethnic Yazidis, a religious minority in Iraq who have been persecuted by Islamic State militants, who overran this region in 2014. Like many in his community, Mahmoud was displaced from his home. MATA MAHMOUD: My house is in the hands of the Islamic State. They didn't leave anything for us. They destroyed and blew up our houses and now this is our only source of income. We have no salary, and we feed our families with this. ZACHARY GREEN: Finding and digging up the truffles is difficult and dangerous work. MATA MAHMOUD: There are lots of IEDs, the Islamic State has planted a lot. My friend was blown up by one over there in the west. The Islamic State is also shooting mortars and they land very close by. ZACHARY GREEN: With his harvest in hand, every morning, Mahmoud and other Yazidis go to this local vegetable market to sell truffles to traders like this man, who will then ship them as far as Baghdad. MESHO MUSSA: Today I have bought 700 kilos so far, and I hope to reach a ton. And by sunset I'll be done. ZACHARY GREEN: On an average day, Mahmoud sells about three kilograms–or about six-and-a-half pounds of truffles, earning around 10,000 dinars–or roughly 8 US dollars. Despite the hardship and the danger, many Yazidis are still thankful for the work. MESHO MUSSA: It's a blessing from God. These poor people don¹t have a dinar in their pocket and when they work from sunrise to sunset they make 50,000, 60,000, even 100,000. It's a gift from God. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Apr 10, 2016 By — Zachary Green Zachary Green Zachary Green began working in online and broadcast news in 2009. Since then he has produced stories all over the U.S. and overseas in Ireland and Haiti. In his time at NewsHour, he has reported on a wide variety of topics, including climate change, immigration, voting rights, and the arts. He also produced a series on guaranteed income programs in the U.S. and won a 2015 National Headliner Award in business and consumer reporting for his report on digital estate planning. Prior to joining Newshour, Zachary was an Associate Producer for Need to Know on PBS, during which he assisted in producing stories on gun violence and healthcare, among others. He also provided narration for the award-winning online documentary series, “Retro Report”. @ZachGreen_News