Karama Library Project - Greece

On our way to Athens to meet some old Palestinian friends....The situation of Palestinians born in Syria - all of them without ID - is unique, and this project will seek Palestinian Syrians out and aim to serve them in particular.

Palestinian Syrians: Twice refugees As refugees continue to flee civil war in Syria, the road to asylum remains difficult for some Syrian-born Palestinians.

An important reminder. Einstein was a refugee— and IRC was founded at his request in 1933!

Photo: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency poster hanging up at IRC-HQ

This is an activity by the children of Project Elea, on the periphery of Athens
They want: Open Borders, Love, Justice, Play.... you don't see people asking for Charity.
One friend told us: “We didn't leave our homes, lose everything, survive the journey and come to Greece only for a pair of Adidas. We wait in these lines for many hours sometimes, but it quickly changes us - you can't imagine what begins to happen to people, we find ourselves fighting over shoes. I feel I don't know or understand these people. I only understand this isn't who we are, this isn't who I am. I have lost myself, I have lost my power.”

Sometimes there are limitless crayons and markers and paintbrushes during activity time, other times children cry over a few squares of colorful, torn, tissue paper, desperately afraid they won't get a piece of their own.

A grandmother finds herself losing her temper after going without her daily glass of milk. She finds herself standing in line for hours demanding her due, and discovers she has been unintentionally omitted from the official camp “census”.
A teenage girl can't wash her long hair for weeks, shampoo has become a luxury.
Donations of charitable goods ebb and flow.

People bravely escape their homes only to find themselves in transit camps dwelling in a persistent atmosphere of scarcity. They often feel they must scramble and compete with others in order to get their hands on some bare necessities. The distribution line can strip people of their sense of identity, making them feel almost invisible.

Efforts like Project Elea work hard to counter those dynamics. To bring back a sense of Humanity.

“I watch my children run past into the arms of the foreign volunteers, and they are so happy. These good people are able to give them a few hours of laughter, it's important. But at night they're not the ones who dry their tears. Before we go to sleep I try to come up with a different story every night, stories about butterflies and other beautiful things, so that they can sleep. But sometimes I can't always think of anything beautiful and I can't come up with any stories. None of us sleep, we all have nightmares, the children are up all night long and so are we.”

Foreign volunteers conduct informal education activities for children for at most a few hours daily. And unlike volunteer teachers in refugee camps, their parents will be there in coming months and years. Throughout almost all the trauma migrant children have endured, their parents have been there.

Every parent will tell you that since landing in a refugee center, their children have become exceedingly restless, often staying awake into the wee hours. Most families in refugee centers spend months on end, day after day, in very close quarters, hovering over cell phones as a means of entertainment, distraction, and communication with relatives. Reading to children helps establish the notion of bedtime and restore life's daily rhythm, assuring that children get the consistent rest required to facilitate their cognitive development during waking hours.