Thank you, Europe, for taking care of Refugees

I have yesterday started writing about this topic which is very important and touches me in the heart: the situation of refugees in Europe who have make terrible experiences on their way and sometimes even face bad situations once they reach a country where they are registered and brought to a temporary home. There is however a different side to this situation as well: the thousands and even millions of people who are helping! I want to say a big thank you and at the same time encourage my friends and readers in Europe to keep up – or start – this great support for people who are in need!

Of course, there are haters, xenophobes, neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists. We can see their faces in the news. At least in the German news however, we can see much more clearly, much more often and in much greater numbers people who do the opposite: they welcome the refugees and support them selflessly in every way they can. And they are not only in Germany – all over Europe there are these wonderful people full of love in their hearts!

There are people who stand at the train stations when trains with refugees arrive. They wave with flowers and hold up ‘welcome’ signs when a bus reaches their town with exhausted young and old men and women who are nervous and at least a little bit afraid as well.

There are countless helpers in cities, towns and villages across Europe who offer their free time, their hands, minds and legs to charitable organizations. They help serving food, organizing temporary accommodation and distributing clothes, toys and more.

There are those who want to help but don’t find time, send old clothes, supplies, anything that is needed and what they have in spare.

There are families, couples and single persons who take refugees in their homes, offering a place to live for free and offering them the best chance to integration they could ever have.

There are volunteers who organize classes in the language of the country they are now in, who teach them skills they may need, who take them to the doctor or to various offices they have to visit to get settled.

And there are those beautiful people who organize special events for refugees – celebrations to welcome them, parties to introduce them to the volunteers who can help, trips with the children to playgrounds or a nearby lake and so on.

You already see that it is a long list of many things that are done for refugees, a long list of great deeds wonderful people are helping with. It is just amazing to see.

Although I never was a refugee, never had such a situation of emergency and need, this is the Germany and Europe that I have always experienced. Open and friendly, welcoming and loving. Seeing this gives me a warm feeling in the heart. It makes me believe that those who are spreading hatred are far outnumbered by those who spread love.