Justice and Human Rights Germany Project #24495

Rehabilitation Support For Refugees in Germany

by IsraAID

Project Report | Feb 19, 2019
IsraAID Germany Leadership Groups Give Back

By IsraAID Staff | Germany

IsraAID Germany's Kompass program seeks to cultivate a generation of refugee leaders engaging in society at large to improve the local communities. Many of the thousands of refugees who have arrived to Germany struggle to integrate into society at large, a barrier exacerbated by post-trauma. By creating a multi-pronger program comprised of psychosocial support, integration support, and empowerment, the Kompass progarm offers leadership development opportunities for young refugees to engage in German society at large.

Some graduates of the Kompass leadership programs are invited to join the IsraAID professional staff as “navigators.” As part of their role, navigators help to create programs in shelters for other refugees, and also lead programs in the wider German and Greek communities-- for example, volunteering at food banks to serve the homeless; or engaging with the aging community at retirement centers. One of these woman, Maryam, is supporting IsraAID psychosocial teams within refugee shelters. Maryam is 30 years old and married to another Syrian refugee whom she knew back in Damascus. Maryam has been in Germany for three years, and speaks fluent Arabic and German.

Ali, a Palestinian refugee from Syria, was also raised in Damascus. Today he works alongside a Jewish Israeli member of the team developing and executing theater, movement, and photography therapy for refugee youth. He lives in Germany, but recently received his passport and was able to travel to visit IsraAID’s mission in Northern Greece, where he and his colleague led a workshop for refugee youth in the Sindos Community Center.

The opening Kompass event of 2019 began with a self-planned afternoon of preparing and distributing 70 boxed meals to the homeless. Locals were touched by the gesture, and said it warmed their heart despite the freezing cold weather!

Thank you for your support of this empowering program!

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Nov 26, 2018
German Chancellor Angela Merkel Awards IsraAID With Integration Prize

By IsraAID Staff | Berlin, Germany

The IsraAID Team with Chancellor Angela Merkel

On Monday 29 October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented IsraAID with the German Federal Government’s Integration Prize, in recognition of our work with refugees in Germany.

The German government’s highest honor for integration was given to IsraAID Germany’s Brückenbau (“Bridge Building”) project, which provides psychological support in Arabic for at-risk refugee women and victims of gender-based violence living in shelters and training and counselling for shelter staff. The program empowers women living in refugee shelters to build better self-help structures, improve interactions with shelter staff and strengthen personal and child safety.

The Brückenbau program is run in partnership with ZWST, the Welfare Board of Jews in Germany.

At the ceremony in Berlin, Chancellor Merkel said ….

"IsraAID has been operating in Germany since 2015, when one million asylum seekers and refugees reached the country, most fleeing the brutality of the Syrian civil war and the threat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In addition to Brückenbau, IsraAID Germany’s programs include refugee youth leadership groups, post-trauma psychosocial support for children using expressive arts therapy, and a special program supporting survivors of the Yazidi genocide. IsraAID’s team in Germany is a multicultural mosaic of Arabic-, Hebrew-, German- and English-speaking psychologists, social workers, art therapists and educators.

IsraAID has been at the forefront of the international response to the global refugee and displacement crisis. Around the world, 68.5 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes. 25.4 million are refugees, and more than half of them are children. This is one of the largest humanitarian disasters of our generation. IsraAID has been at the forefront of the global response, with sustainable programs to build resilience, provide education, combat gender-based violence, advance child protection, improve sanitation and offer livelihood opportunities. Since the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, IsraAID has provided medical, psychosocial and educational support to over 100,000 refugees in Greece and Germany alone."

Commenting on the award, Yotam Polizer, IsraAID Co-CEO, said:

“The global refugee crisis is among the most pressing humanitarian challenges of our generation. We pay tribute to our fantastic, multicultural and multinational team in Germany whose work is being recognized today, and to our partnership with ZWST which makes this program possible. At IsraAID, we aim to utilize our professional expertise to support the needs, rights, and integration of refugees wherever we can. Today, we have teams working with refugees and displaced people in Bangladesh, Germany, Greece, Kenya, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, South Sudan, and Uganda. In Germany, and in Greece, most of the people we reach are civilians fleeing brutal conflicts in countries like Iraq and Syria. The IsraAID Germany program being honored today – Bridge Building – is a striking testament to the power of our common humanity, as we support communities on the journey towards a better future.”

Navonel Glick, IsraAID Co-CEO, added:

“Many members of the IsraAID community are still reeling after the horrifying attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend. The values of integration and tolerance promoted by this prize are the antithesis of violence and hate, and a powerful reminder our humanitarian mission to help those in need, regardless of religion, race, or gender.”

IsraAID Germany and our missions around the world were honored to recieve the 2018 Integration Award! Congratulations to all involved!

Thank you for your ongoing support of this work!

Country Director Gal with Chancellor Merkel

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Aug 27, 2018
Hand-in-Hand with Yazidi Refugees in Germany

By Aliza Herzberg | IsraAID Germany Fellow

IsraAID Germany staff self-reflect using art

Aliza, who has spent the summer in Germany as part of IsraAID's humanitarian fellowship program, shares her reflections from a recent event bringing together Yazidi refugees and the local Jewish community:

IsraAID Germany hosted an event for the Hand-in-Hand project on August 7th. The goal of this project is to bring the Yazidi and Jewish community together and encourage friendship-building and connection. For the Yazidi community, this program was aimed to empower and integrate this population into German culture. It also provided an opportunity for these two groups to learn about each other and encourage dialogue and cultural exchange between these diverse communities.

IsraAID Germany hosts Hand-in-Hand events every few months and hopes to increase the frequency of these events to provide a more consistent program for the participants.

We were lucky to have two incredible volunteers for the Hand-in-Hand event: two Kurdish women, a mother and daughter team, who are part of IsraAID's Kompass leadership and empowerment group. We knew they were very skilled in cooking and preparing large amounts of food. They taught us about traditional Yazidi food and helped us brainstorm the menu for the food at the event. We did the food shopping together and they spent a full twelve-hour day cooking in the tiny intern apartment.

Because of the dietary sensitivities of many of the attendees, we decided to make mostly vegan food. Our menu included hummus, tabbouleh, dolmas, pasta salad, rice biryani, Shifta (Yazidi fried meat patties), and Nokau soup (garbanzo beans and spices). We also prepared some custard and jelly desserts. We made enough food for an entire village!

After preparing and beautifully displaying all of the food, we went to the garden to enjoy the event. We had several tables set up and an art corner for families with children. People began to stroll into the space and mingle with one another.

After some time, we presented ourselves and welcomed everyone to the event. We introduced the goals for the project and explained how the evening would unfold. We had planned a small activity to get people interacting with each other. We asked everyone to meet someone who they have never spoken to before, introduce themselves, and find one thing in common with the other person. Then we asked the attendees to continue meeting new people and finding things in common with each person they met. This led into a lot of conversation and the garden was filled with good energy, new friendships, and lots of smiles. We hope the participants will remain in contact with one another and feel inspired to attend more Hand-in-Hand events in the future.

Thank you for support, which makes this program possible! More updates to follow ...

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