Is there room for them in our inn?
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Jon Carpenter
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Sun 13 Dec 2015, 11:16 (last edited on Thu 17 Dec 2015, 13:17) Every day I read reports from volunteers on the front line of helping refugees as they cross the Aegean at night from Turkey. Or making their faltering way on land across Europe. As some people may wonder why Charlbury Refugee Action Group is raising money to help people fleeing persecution, war and murder in this way, I thought I would post some of these reports here. After all, it can't really be so bad, can it? These reports all appear on Facebook, often with photographs which I can't show you on the forum. You'll have to use your imagination when it comes to drowned children with grey, bloated faces. Or parents and volunteers bending over lifeless bodies. So here is my story of the day... It is from Merel Graeve, a volunteer from London who has just returned to Lesvos for another six weeks after a short break home. "The nightshift is from 12am till 8am, so we slept during the day but got up in the afternoon on time to buy 40 pairs of shoes: we didn't want to have to turn away these people again. Philip Mold, part of your direct donations have made sure that there are 40 people right now who's journeys have been made a hundred times easier, as they are now wearing brand new walking and sports shoes that will support them on the long walks they will have to endure for the next few weeks. As ever, as always and as I remember it, there are the faces of trauma all around me. There are crowds of people, but a few who stand out who make you feel some kind of inexplicable connection, who break your heart just by looking in their eyes. A 15 year old Yazidi boy in a thin leather jacket who managed to escape from mount Sinjar: he made it here all alone, many of his family still left behind. I gave him a brand new pair of shoes and pulled out the warmest layers I could find: I cannot even think about the traumas this child must have seen in his short life and here he stands before me smiling. The little Syrian girl with her dad who kept giving me kisses whilst I was changing her wet trousers and shoes. The Syrian father and 11 year old son. The boy couldn't speak any English but he just smiled the whole time whilst I tried to pile as many blankets as I could find and rubbed his back. His father tells me his wife and daughters are already in Germany whilst the two of them stayed behind to make money for their crossing. "I want a future for my children" he says. "We are from Rakar, there are only bombs and rockets and shootings, smoke and rubble. There is no school. If it was just me and my wife we would stay, but we go for our children in hope for a better life, for their education." How can anybody in their right mind argue with that? Another group that broke my heart were 2 boys and a girl, all cousins, 19 and 20 years old. They were Palestinians from Syria, (so they are essentially double refugees…), from a camp that was under siege from Assad for a year where people had nothing to eat and no water supply. When Assad pulled out, Isis pretty much took over. And now here they were, young, beautiful and in optimistic spirits even though they had all left their families behind. How much can a human take? How strong can one person be? The stories are heart wrenching as always. A reminder of why I am back in Lesvos. These are the people who need our love so much." www.facebook.com/charlburyrefugee
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