5/20/20

WE KEEP GOING: PART 2

LHI Refugee Center in Greece Goes Digital

In non-COVID-19 times, the LHI Refugee Center in Serres, Greece, is a huge program with dozens of daily classes and activities providing healing and education for hundreds of Yazidi refugees. It normally takes a team of 25+ volunteers and program managers to keep it running.

And thanks to our team’s commitment to keep going, the psychosocial aspects of the program are still running remotely during the pandemic! From their lockdowns in Italy, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Finland, the team started a Facebook Page to deliver a number of online classes and resources to the same Yazidi population that would normally attend classes in person.

Members of LHI’s Refugee Center leadership team made this video to share with the Yazidi population (with whom they normally work in person at the Center) at the beginning of the quarantine as an introduction to the online learning program. “Bashi” is hello in Kurmanji!

Some of the educational video titles available are shown in the screenshots below. I mean, wouldn’t you want to watch some?

 
WhatsApp+Image+2020-05-20+at+6.51.57+AM.jpg
WhatsApp+Image+2020-05-20+at+6.52.02+AM.jpg
 

Here’s more info about the LHI Educational Facebook Page: 

  • Every program uploads 1-2 videos per week. 

  • Videos are all created by LHI volunteers. That includes international and some resident Yazidi volunteers who live in the camps near the LHI Refugee Center!

  • The Education program uploads 1 video per level per week (10 videos per week)

  • Live question sessions for English language learning are held every Saturday

  • Many of our previous volunteers are engaged in this new project

  • This effort continues our engagement with the Yazidi community in Serres

Nick, Margaux, and Millie in LHI’s aid distribution warehouse. Serres, Greece.

Nick, Margaux, and Millie in LHI’s aid distribution warehouse. Serres, Greece.

While these efforts enable us to continue providing programming remotely, there’s one program that simply can’t be managed this way—food and hygiene supply distributions. We’re so grateful that 3 members of the leadership team (Nick, Margaux, and Millie) stayed in Greece to ensure that these aid distributions continue to happen. Thank you!