Jane -  United to assist Refugees UK

Quotes from the responses to the questions that I gave to the volunteers featured in Creating Sanctuary.

1. “A bell rang, the train arrived, and it was chaos. Changing nappies of wet and crying children, everyone coughing and searching for shoes or socks. Having to change the clothes of soaking wet kids with their parents….disabled people being pushed in wheelbarrows, no light and no idea where they were going. We helped carry stuff and calm the kids down.”

2. “We had a Romanian girl come to stay with us not long after as part of a school program, and all the children had suffered so much, her sister was missing presumed dead at the time and some kids had scars from bullet wounds.”

3. “I loved watching my son play with one of the families kids, nothing matters to kids they just play and language differences etc, it just doesn’t matter, we could learn a lot from them.”

4. “Sometimes there is so much need and so much being requested I feel like my head might blow off, but I have learnt to deal with that and accept, well, just what our motto says. We cannot change the world for everybody but everyone can change the world for someone”

“…the apathy I sense from parts of society, it makes me feel like we just say ‘oh never again’ and then sit back and let these things go on, where we could help and are in reach to help and yet don’t.”

5. “We don’t stop divides or break down walls by distancing ourselves or turning away because it’s too painful to see. A solution has to be found to so many of the issues causing so many people to move.”

“I think I would say to people to sit and talk with a refugee and then decide how they feel.” 

6. “For some of the children that have volunteered I think it could influence them in the future and connects them (in a world so full of consumption and materialism) to other kids in situations much less fortunate.”

7. “It provided a focal point for us all to come together and help refugees. It shows people they are not forgotten. I think the hospital generator and equipment will have saved lives in Syria. For others it’s a warm set of clothes, a meal or something for their kids and babies.”