Every day we wake up in beds, warm blankets wrapped on our bodies and soft pillows beneath our heads. We walk into our bathrooms and draw hot water in which to wash our faces and brush our teeth. We enjoy a hot cup of coffee and breakfast. These are things that we take for granted every single day.
Now imagine that all of a sudden it was taken away from you. The world we are currently living in – anything is but certain. Countries we never imagined would persecute and displace millions of people are now expelling them from their home countries; labeling them terrorists and sending families – women, children away in the cold with nothing but what they can carry on their backs.
Many have found ways to make life threatening, perilous journeys to escape to safer lands…to refugee camps. Over the last several years – refugee camps have been over flooded with displaced people who cannot return to their homes. The camps cannot simply accommodate the millions of people fleeing to them for help and they have been forced to face jailing by crossing borders illegally or creating makeshift settlement camps outside of refugee camps.
The Facts
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According to the UN Refugee Agency there are 65.6 million people worldwide who are currently displaced of which 22.5 million of them are officially classified and protected under the UNRA. In 2016, less than 1% of the registered refugees were formally placed and resettled. These families have been settled all across the world ranging from the Americas through the Asia Pacific region. Turkey, however, holds the title for hosting the most refugees…which makes this current situation all that more perplexing.
The Irony
While several countries around the world, including Turkey, are taking those helpless souls in, they are in turn persecuting their own people and creating a whole new wave of refugees all in the name of political power. While most of the world has not only heard and shown support for the tragic death of three year old Aylan Kurdi, there was virtually no coverage (especially in Turkey) of the Maden family who tragically lost their lives crossing the Agean sea. The Maden family left their prestigious jobs, and lived a life of extreme poverty in secret until securing enough money to make the dangerous passage across the Agean sea seeking refuge in Greece.
Unfortunately, the story of the Maden family is only one of thousands of Turkish joining the ranks of fleeing refugees. It is now, more than ever, that as a society – as humans, we need to come together to support these forcibly displaced people and help them establish themselves in a foreign world where they don’t know the language and have nothing but the clothes on their backs. Many of these families have no paperwork, no jobs, no language skills – they are virtually helpless.
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What You Can Do
It is at this time that Embrace Relief has come to you to request your support of these families while we work as an organization and as a society, to get them settled and on a path to self-sufficiency. Effective January 2018, the funds from our Refugee Relief program along with any donations made going forward for refugee relief will be dedicated to refugees in Greece. Currently, the Greek government has been instrumental in helping these families but should not have to carry that burden alone.
In order to support this initiative, Embrace Relief is offering two options:
- OPTION 1: ADOPT A FAMILY
This option will be available for those who wish to work directly one on one with a refugee family in Greece. You will be matched with a family that fits the parameters you specify in your registration form and will be in direct contact with them. As the donor, you will decide the frequency, the amount and even the beneficiary of the funds that will benefit your adopted family.
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- OPTION 2: DONATE TO THE CAMPAIGN
- This option will be available for those who want to help the cause but cannot donate the
time to managing a family overseas. Once again, you can choose an amount and the
frequency of your donation, and Embrace Relief will take the responsibility of disbursing
the funds as needed amongst the 600+ refugee families in Greece as needed.
What Others Are Saying
To learn more about our past work:
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