The Life Of A Regugee

The life of a refugee right now is what you might be looking at, at this moment. One might be living on the streets one, one might be sharing an apartment with 20-30 people (a small apartment), one may be sleeping in the park/under cars/in a box, you name it. As I have talked to you before in letting you know why the refugees have come to Greece, hopefully you will see what the refugees are dealing with right now.

These people come to Greece to find hope, get away from violence, get away from threats, or just to leave. These people come here thinking that once they come everything will be just peachy! But once they walk that 48 hr trip they are sadly mistaken. There is a video that I recently watched that broke my heart. It's called A battle for Attica Square. Attica Square is a little park inside the little portion of Attiki. Refugees would fill this park and finally the people of Athens residing in this area got Angry. Here is the video (it's about 20 mins long, but this is what is happening as we speak)





The people of Athens are hardening their hearts to these people, yes people might say"Well they are coming into their country so you can't really blame them". My response to that is ,"Well they are still human." Since that video was filmed, the violence has gotten worse. Now not only are they beating the men, but they are beating the women. Not only that now that the men are trying to go get food for their families, the people are waiting for the men to leave and are BEATING the children and women. Seriously who does that?! There is such a need right now that can be so hard for us that are serving, because unfortunately we can't stop the violence, and we can't give all that they need because we don't have the means for it.

Yesterday as I was at Team Fellowship, and I heard from a few teammates something that recently happened possibly 2 days ago. In the newspaper it read that there was a a fire in a Mosque in Attiki. Not only was this disheartening it gets worse.... as there was a fire, they blocked off the windows and doors trapping in about 40 people, and the police that were standing there did NOTHING. When a man went to try to help he was stabbed and blamed saying that he tried to stab a cop.

What is this world coming to. I mean I know there is evil, but when you are just murdering someone because of what they believe its awful. So you want to know what the refugees are dealing with? They are dealing with fear. Complete and utter fear. But even though their is fear there is hope. As I have gotten to know some of the women They still have their dreams of succeeding. One girl named Dessie wants to be a lawyer for her people. One girl wants to be a Engineer. One little boy wants to be a Doctor. And you know what. I believe at some point they will be able to do it.

God is doing so many great things, but this was just a little view into the life of what a refugee has to deal with, what we as a team have to deal with while they are dealing with their trauma, and what to be praying for. Sorry for my little rant, but I felt you might want to know not only what is going on in my head, but what is going on during this time.

Even though there is so much sad things going on, in the midst of all this, the refugees find a little glimpse of happiness, a little glimpse of rest and a little glimpse of safety when they walk into the doors of Helping Hands.

Keep the safety of the team and the refugees in your prayers please, AND thank you :)