About
“500, 000 immigrants are coming into our country!”, “Swarms of migrants are crossing the borders”, “Millions are flooding into Europe”, “They are taking our jobs”, “Our country is overrun”, “ISIS is smuggling thousands of extremists into the EU”
Everybody has an opinion. Everybody thinks they know what’s going on. But what do we actually know? Who are all these numbers?
They are not just numbers. They are like you and me.
By writing their stories we want to tell the human tale behind these statistics. Our aim is to spread compassion towards people who have lived through unimaginable suffering.
We do not pretend to know all the answers. The refugee crisis is incredibly complicated and it’ll take more than just compassion to fix it.
We don’t stand on either side of the current political debate. We just want to show you that the people who are being forced to make the perilous journey to Europe have more in common with us than we realise. That they are more than a scary, exaggerated headline, and more than just another number.
How do you collect the stories?
They are written by people who have been volunteering in a refugee camp, at Amsterdam Central Station, or on where people are arriving on an island in Greece. The stories are about personal encounters the volunteers have had with people coming into Europe, as they’ve tried to help them.
Who are the writers?
The people who wrote these stories are from different countries, are different ages, and have different backgrounds. Some wanted to include their names, others wanted to use pseudonyms, and some wanted to stay anonymous.
All our writers wanted to share their story with everyone. They wanted to show other people how they are experiencing the “refugee crisis” — that when you hear about “ numbers” there are stories behind them.
The stories have been edited in English for clarity and cohesiveness.
Why don’t you use many photos?
We don’t have many photographs of the people we welcome. They are in a very vulnerable position, and we don’t want to take advantage of them in order to get a heartwarming photo.
We know that everybody has the ability to visualise these people’s faces. Every day we are inundated with images of suffering people — we have become almost desensitised to it. So we let the words speak for themselves.
Why is it written in English?
We didn’t write in Dutch because we wanted to make the stories readable for the most amount of people.
A lot of the people we meet at Centraal Station, or in camps, or on other locations don’t often speak Dutch either. Some volunteers can speak Arabic, Tigray, Persian, or other languages, which makes conversations easier with people who have come from Syria or Eritrea, etc. You might pick up a few Arabic or other international words along the way, but we’ve made sure that it’s understandable for any English speaker.
Want to share your story?
Have you ever met a refugee who told you their story? Or do you know someone who has recently fled their home for Europe? Please share your stories with us. We want to hear them.
