Why we Care about the Refugees?

These were the days of early September last year. We were only a couple of weeks away from the finish of the 2015 Renewing Our Minds (ROM) Gathering in Fuzine, Croatia. A group of ROM leaders developed a quick plan to mobilize its community of friends for its first refugee relief mission.  

In less than two weeks our friends from several countries collected sufficient funds and some material aid, so that by mid September our international ROM Response Team (RRT) gathered in Belgrade, Serbia ready for action. In Serbia we partnered with IFES Serbia (Evangelical Student Association, or EUS), and were joined by the EUS teams from Belgrade and Serbia.

Those were still the early days of daily massive inflows of refugees into Serbia. The government seemed to appreciate the enthusiasm of various self-organized groups. Our team, together with other international groups (from Serbia, Austria, Germany, France, Slovakia, Hungary, USA) were at that time still acting as the first responders in the growing refugee crisis in Serbia. In those days big international humanitarian agencies were only assessing the situation or setting a stage for their work, and the government supervision of the aid distribution was only in its infancy. Those days demonstrated that self-organized groups of volunteers were able to adequately take care of the essential needs of the refugees.

Those were the last hot late summer days in 2015. In the morning our team would go to a big supermarket in Novi Belgrade to purchase the goods: bottled waters, some juice, croissants, energy bars, apples, bananas, napkins, wet wipes and more.  Then four vehicles, packed with humanitarian aid and our team would drive to the Serbian-Hungarian border near Horgos. Most of the time, however we dedicated to the Serbian – Croatian border between Sid and Tovarnik, meeting the refugees face to face, and sharing with them our humanitarian articles. Even today our teem refers to our refugee mission in Serbia as the “Ccornfield mission”, since for two days we were encountering thousands of refugees walking on the dirt road that led the refugees into Croatia through cornfields.

There is something profoundly moving and personal when one has the opportunity to encounter refugees face to face, give them food or clothes with one’s own hands, listen to their stories, meets smiling and behaving children and thus participate - at least for a few moments - in their struggle to survive the journey which for some of them begun even two to three months earlier. There was something noble in being given the opportunity to drive at least some mothers and their small children a bit closer to the first collecting place on the Croatian side, although still in the no-man’s land. It was reassuring to hear and see their expressions of gratitude, such as: “Our own people do not care, but you Christians love us!

In September up to 10000 refugees would pass through those cornfields in a single day. By early December the circumstances changed radically. The refugee corridor was now moving through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria. A number of EU countries manifesting a hostile attitude towards the refugees grew. Hungary, Slovenia and Macedonia decided to fence off their borders with some of their neighbors. And when the devastating terrorist attack overwhelmed Paris, France in November, many where only too quick to place the blame for the attack on the recently arrived refugees. Almost immediately the daily intake of refugees moving through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia was visibly reduced, because Greece would not let any refugee into Macedonia unless they were Syrians, Iraqis or Afghanis. At the same time Turkey, encouraged by the EU through a financial incentive, started slowing down the refugee transit beyond its borders. Meanwhile, the EU continued to demonstrate a lack of decisive leadership in convincing its member states to share fairly in receiving the incoming refugees.

By early December, when our ROM Response Team was ready for a new action, this time in Croatia, the flow of refugees was well regulated and supervised through at least Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. All refugees were taken in an organized way from the Macedonian border in Serbia to the Serbia-run refugee transit camp in Adasevci, near the Croatian border. From there coordinated buses and trains were taking them directly to the recently built Croatian refugee camp in Slavonski Brod. Then, a few hours later the same refugees would be taken by trains directly to the Slovenian refugee camp in Dobova, and then to Austria and Germany. In December the average flow of refugees through the newly opened refuge camp in Croatia was about 2500 people, occasionally reaching 5000 every day.

Our ROM Response Team of 15, in partnership with the Croatian NGO “Moj grad Zagreb” (Zagreb My City), had a privilege to volunteer for a week in the Croatian Refugee Transit Center in Slavonski Brod. This camp, should this become necessary, could provide a temporary shelter to at least 6000 refugees for longer periods of time. Our main task was to build two shelters that were donated to the Croatian Red Cross, and dedicated to UNICEF as shelters to be used by the nursing refugee mothers. We also volunteered in a number of other ways, of which we loved the best the moments when we were able to assist other volunteers in helping refugees with some new clothes, warm shoes, hats, gloves or jackets.

The well structured order of service at the camp stands out, and probably makes the Croatian refugee camp into a best organized refugee camp on the refugee corridor in Europe. The other feature of the camp that stands out is the respectful treatment of the refuges. Every time when another train would enter the camp, 1200 refugees would be guided, in orderly manner, by the Croatian Police through the registration process. Them they were taken to the tents in which a number of volunteers served them with whatever they needed at that time. At the end they would receive food packages, and then taken back to the train and further to Slovenia. The whole process, between the arrival of a refugee train and its departure would last between two to three hours. On average between two and three trains, filled with refugees would arrive to and leave the Croatian refugee camp every day.

Our two ROM response teams enjoyed every minute of our service to refugees. We are at this time planning new refugee missions. Some of them will be implemented by our partnering organizations, while others will be carried through by our ROM Response Team. In the months ahead of us we would prefer the “cornfield missions” to those of supervised camps. We are looking forward to meeting refugees face to face again.

Why is a leadership and reconciliation initiative such as ROM – Renewing Our Minds, with its umbrella organization Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, involved in saving the lives of refugees? Especially at the time when the opposition to the current global movement of refugees and immigrants grows ever more hostile in Europe, and in the USA too.

Refugees are not terrorists. Among more than a million of refugees who entered Europe in 2015 only a few among them are people eager to cause trouble. The overwhelming majority are genuine refugees and immigrants who are only trying to find a safe place for their families and children. The experiences of our team with the refugees testify that refugees are beautiful human beings who are at this time looking up to us to help them with some acts of kindness, empathy and understanding. Many of them have tasted the bitterness of war. They have lost their fathers, mothers, children, family members and close friends. Most of them have lost their homes and everything else they used to have, and there is nothing left in their homelands to return to. And for many of them returning back would mean a certain death. In short, Europe is at this time witnessing the migration of the hundreds of thousands of what we could call “the homeless of the world”.

For the past seventeen years ROM has been inviting young leaders of the Southeast Europe and the world to be radical leaders in their service to their communities and the world. By repeating the words of Jesus that “whatever we do for the least of these we do for Jesus” we have been encouraging them to follow Jesus consistently, going beyond the lip service of religion to the spheres of practical love and service. One generation after another of young leaders encountering ROM has been taught that genuine leaders would recognize the time and place when they would be called to leave their polished offices and get their hands dirty, not from corruption but from serving and loving those in great need.

So our involvement with “the homeless of the world” at this time is a statement of empathy. On the one hand it is a message to the ROM community at large that this is the time for everyone of them, in whatever position of leadership they are serving at this time, to stand up for refugees, the most disadvantaged group of people in Europe at this time. To the other friends we wanted to demonstrate that we mean business; that ROM is not about cosmetics in leadership, but about the real thing. We wanted to take seriously the words of the Lord Almighty: “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow of the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” Zachariah 7:9.10. NIV

You are my Friend

The news that we will be building shelters for nursing mothers came as the perfect representation of the coming Christmas.  It suddenly made a lot of sense to welcome every small baby and their mothers who were coming from God knows how far – from Syria, Iraq, even Afghanistan. We quickly understood that it was not us delivering gifts to them. They became a precious gift to us.

So the threatening look and feel of the camp, emerging grey from the thick fog, became just a brilliant stage set for the next play in our lives.  It was time to leave the fancy costumes behind, and put on the heavy work suits and stoop down into the mud. It was time for the fingers used to playing an instrument, to be bruised by nails and hammers.

Did we curse when hammer missed the nail?  Did we argue with each other and with ourselves?  Oh, yes!  And for that each of us asked for forgiveness - from our Master and from each other. But the point was that the lower we got, the more mud we tasted, the colder we got, the more the white buildings grew.

One day, Conrad and I dropped the tools and went around the corner to help with yet another group of refugees coming by a special refugee train. I do not know any more who it was, but someone gave me a bag and told me, "It is full with the winter stuff: gloves and hats and scarfs".  I started taking loads of that stuff into my arms and moved into the crowd, observing who needed that extra protection from cold.  I made sure I matched colors, especially for the women. 

I gave one man a scarf and I immediately observed his son was in great need of winter clothes, which I did not have. I only had a hand full of scarfs.  I chose one and gave it to him - it was a nice one, with many colors, the kind you can wear around your neck, or transform it into a head band, or even into a nice, warm hood.  The little boy loved it!  He was smiling and smiling and smiling.  He was addressing his father in their own language.  And suddenly he turned to me and said, "You are my friend!". And he kept smiling.  And then I did the most stupid thing. Because I didn't know what else to do - I ruffled his dark hair and I turned around and... left.

Keeping a sense of fashion in the middle of that dirty madness; and putting our hearts out, filled with the holy touch of friendship - bold signs of humanity, as the cold and wet and dark slime of death is visiting the nations! That was just a little bit of how we, a small group of friends from several countries, learned more about humanity and grace, suspended in time and fog, just before Christmas 2015 in the Croatian Refugee Camp in Slavonski Brod.

Liviu Bocaniala

Who are the Refugees

ROM Response Team, Croatia, December 2015

Violeta and Conrad Altmann

With a pinch of humor (a lot of it actually), a touch of humanity, forgetting for a moment that they are refugees (purposely or not) these people are coping with their reality keeping a sense of normality, or trying to.


So who are the refugees?

They are the old lady who was in need of winter boots. We found purple ones in her size. But she said: “I’m old, do you have them in black?”

The lady was asking for a warm sweater for her. Then she said for baby. She switched the request a few times and I thought to myself “make up your mind lady”. I went close to check over the barrier to see the kid but what I saw was that she was pregnant. She wanted a maternity sweater. The next time this happened I caught on faster. 

The couple carrying a large blanket. They were asking for a little bit of milk. As it turned out they had two newborn babies (twins) in the blanket. They were two days old. They went to the pediatrician tent and got aid. The babies were born while fleeing… Who knows under what conditions. The journey from Syria, Turkey – Greece – Macedonia – Serbia – Croatia – Slovenia – Germany… by boat, foot and train. 

The little kid who came to our Palestinian team member and said “I’m so cold!”. She grabbed the first gloves in her reach and put them on the kids hands. They were orange. His face lit up. He went and grabbed his sister and asked if she could get gloves too. They were so jolly …just because of some colorful gloves. 

The refugees are the mother with four kids, 7 years old and under. Three of them needed newer shoes but couldn’t say what size. Conrad moved to the side and helped a girl take one of her broken sneakers off. I went to find a good pair for her. And she kept her cold little foot on Conrad’s knee as she waited and he helped her put the shoes on. Conrad was so gentle with them. We found shoes for all and they were so grateful. They all said thank you for every little thing they received. And they would not take more than they needed.

The man who knew what shoe size would fit his sister, at a glance. Because in Syria he owned a shoe-shop. 

The teenage girl with a strong opinion about what she would wear or not. She whispered to her mother “I will never wear those pants!” they were the wrong color. My friend who understood the language gracefully offered a different pair of pants (purple). The teenage girl’s eyes lit up and said “Yes! Those!” 

Thousands of people passed daily though this very well organized camp. Supported by many humanitarian organizations and police. Everyone was kind, to them, to us.

Treating people with dignity and kindness, regardless of what we assume about their circumstance, will make this world a better place. 

We were in Croatia, not far away from the Bosnian border, building transit shelters for nursing mothers. Over the last few months, over a million people have been in a continuous exodus from their unsafe country. Over the course of the week we saw so many kids. So many!

They are people fleeing political or religious persecution—often violent—from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. They are mothers, children, fathers, brothers and sisters; business owners, entrepreneurs, designers; Christians, Muslims or people who don’t follow any god. They just want to protect themselves and their families. They are humble, proud, confused and in need. They are people just like us, they think the same way, struggle with the same issues, desire the same cars and clothes and like to hang out at the mall.

Many of us have a hard time imagining who the refugees are that are fleeing their homes and spilling into Europe and the US. The conservative media doesn’t help put things into perspective either, often quite the opposite. Just try to imagine if you had your home destroyed (literally in many cases) and were forced to walk for three months into a country and culture that was totally foreign to you. How would you feel? What if you had to flee from your million dollar home in California and sneak onto a crowded boat to go to China, where they didn’t want you, where they irrationally feared you, where your entire life was on your back and your future was so uncertain that you didn’t know what language you needed to start learning to live.

This is the plight of so many people in need right now. Give money or clothes if you can, volunteer if you can’t. The best way to help is to offer your hand to someone in need.

Violeta and Conrad Altmann