It's been a while since our last update, and in that time Caritas has been very busy. Some refugee families are being left for several months without any income as their cases travel through the system. They rely on Caritas as they are not allowed to work, sometimes receiving no benefit at all for months, and live in very poor accommodation with no heating. For instance, six newly-arrived refugees from Cameroon are living in a demountable metal shed, with no heating, drinking water, or income...
So, the work continues. But let's take a look at a couple of things that have happened recently, before describing how you can still help.
The Learning Refuge is a centre run by Caritas Paphos. They recently held a unique art exhibition at Palia Ilektriki to raise funds for the centre. Each picture was anonymous: the organisers wanted it that way, as some of the pictures were by famous Cypriot and other artists were worth many times more than the €200 fixed sale price applicable to all the pictures. For this reason there was no information to accompany each picture, just a small ID for those who wanted to buy. The organisers didn't want investor collectors coming in to simply gobble up the 'famous artist' pics.
Half of the €200 sale price (on 'sold' pics) goes to the artist, the remainder to The Learning Refuge. In total they raised over €2,200. The theme of the exhibition was 'Displacement' and the interpretation of this theme was so amazingly varied. It's easy to think of displacement as applying only to the peoples of Syria and Iraq in the modern world, but it applies equally to Cyprus in 1974 and The Balkans in the 1990's.
View The Gallery
The Paphos Life forum had a fund raiser to raise money to send the refugee kids on a fun day out, so they could forget about being refugees for a day and remember what it is like being a child. We raised €700 and they all had a whale of a time. Lloyd, who also supplied the pictures for the gallery, made a video of the day which you can view here. You can also see more photos on the Learning Refuge's Facebook Page.
Now, read the following messages from Caritas to find out how you can help more...
KEEPING WARM
Winter is fast approaching, and we are desperately seeking items such as gas bottles, duvets, blankets and heaters.
One very generous local lady has paid for one of our families to be supplied with gas all through winter, but every blanket will help!
ON YOUR BIKE!
Norman Tebbit would be proud. Young refugee men find bikes very useful when they are looking for work. Help them
get back on their feet by donating an old bicycle you no longer use or need. You will be helping somebody out
and clearing some shed space!
BABY CARE
We have two mothers-to-be expecting soon, and needing baby items, especially pram/pushchair/cot/nappies.
Also, a family with four young children, two with terminal wasting condition and needing help
with size 5 and 6 nappies.
COMMISSION A HEART!
These heart mosaics are lovely. Why not commission one for yourself? That way we can farm out work chopping tiles
to the refugee ladies whom we have been training. And if you make your own mosaics, why not outsource your tile
chopping to our ladies?
