Refugee Week Reflection #6

June 20, 2014

World Refugee Day – here are some facts: 51.2 million people have had to flee their homes.  17.9 million leaving their countries.  6.3 million have been living as refugees for many years. Where do they live?  Mostly next door.  For instance, of the 2.5 million from Afghanistan, 1.6 million live in Pakistan.  Ten years ago, 30% managed to get to safety in wealthy countries.  Today that has dropped to 14%.  So of that, we work with a minuscule number.  But I hope that what I have spoken of this week shows loud and clear that every single one of these is a human being with the same longings, cares and hopes as you and me.

The Strangers

June 19, 2014

Below is a poem written especially for Gloucester Refugee Day.  It was read it out by the poet Phil Wood.  We would like to thank Brunswick Baptist for their hospitality and warm welcome to GARAS clients today.

The Strangers

They come to us seeking refuge,

From countries both near and far,

In fear of persecution or torture,

Escaping the conflicts of war.

 

Who knows what fate had to offer?

Whether they lived or they die!

In a fight they had no chance of winning,

No matter how hard they tried.

 

Now far away from their families,

In a strange unfamiliar land,

People talking to them as a foreigner,

In a language they don’t understand.

 

How strange it must all seem to them,

I wonder how I would cope,

If I had to run from my homeland,

With nothing before me but hope.

 

Let’s welcome our brothers and sisters,

Show them the love that we can,

Treat them as one of our family,

Share in the brotherhood of man.

 

Refugee Week Reflections #5

June 19, 2014

It has always been essential to keep a stock of hankies at GARAS.  Just yesterday, I needed them three times. (& A quick dab for me!)
Anyone who thinks that people up sticks and leave their home countries for a jolly, need to see the reality. When your home country thinks its OK to imprison people under ground or use Containers in the middle of desert conditions with no water during the day, is not a place that is easy to live in.
The descriptions I heard yesterday were reminiscent of the Stazi: national service expected throughout your life and crimes include being a member of a Church or Mosque.  So sometimes life becomes too dangerous to remain, but leaving behind your loved ones because it’s too dangerous to risk their lives too. An aching worry continues until you can know that they too are safe.

Refugee Week Reflections #4

June 18, 2014

Sometimes amazing things happen.  Several years ago I was working with a woman from the DRC.  Things were becoming tricky for her and we were grateful for the help we were getting through an interpreter also from the Congo.  At the end of one session he told me that strangely, whilst based in the north of England, he had met a man with the same name as her missing husband.  As happens so often in the chaos of war, they had become separated and had not heard from each other for five years. 

To cut a long story short, in time we were able to reunite the two of them.  Let me tell you, I wept with her as we talked together with him on the phone for the first time after all that time!

Refugee Week Reflections #3

June 17, 2014

In the late 1930s, Kindertransport saved the lives of many children when families took the risk to save their children even if they lost their own lives. Today parents and families make the same kind of choices. 

Some of the most inspiring people I meet are the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. They make extraordinarily scary journeys to attempt to find safety.  We have worked with well over 100 young people each with their own story of death and danger and multiple bereavements.

Some stick out amongst them all, I will never forget the brothers who had fled Afghanistan after their family had been blown up.  The older brother, around 16 had led his highly traumatised 11 year brother across many borders in an attempt to find safety.  There were no available foster carers in Gloucester on their arrival, so I took them to a cheap local hotel while something could be sorted out. Little brother was one of the most withdrawn individuals I have met and I could make little progress in attempting him to feel a little bit safer.

On our way to the hotel he found a football in our car and suddenly in the mirror I caught his eyes, which had brightened up as he clutched the ball.  I assured them that they could keep it, anything to keep that small look of hope grow.  But as we got out at the hotel the older brother said no….he had become so used to having to make decisions to avoid carrying anything other than the essentials, he couldn’t take this gift..

They’re just kids…..