Rehabilitation Support For Refugees in Germany

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 ...