São Paulo – Three years ago, Muna Darweesh fled Damascus, Syria with her husband and four kids. She came to São Paulo, where she provides for her family by cooking Arab food to order. Customers get in touch through social media. One of the things she misses the most is spending time at the homes of neighbors, friends and family. “I need to interact with people, because I have no family, no friends” she complains in a video from the campaign “My Refugee Friend.”
“People ask me where I’m from. I tell them I’m from Gaza and they panic,” says Leon Diab, a Palestinian refugee in São Paulo, in the same video. “I spent Christmas here in Brazil once. I was a guest and I made several friends,” he recalls.
Darweesh, Diab and refugees from several other countries will get a chance to spend Christmas in the company of a Brazilian family. They were selected by Migraflix – a non-governmental organization for the cultural integration and economic empowerment of refugees – for the campaign “My Refugee Friend,” in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro-based agency NBS. The first step is finding families that are willing to offer a Christmas dinner or lunch to a refugee.
“There are 8,000 recognized refugees in Brazil, and 28,000 awaiting recognition,” says Migrafix founder Jonatan Berezovsky, who’s in charge of selecting refugees interested in spending Christmas in the company of a Brazilian family. There are more people willing to entertain than there are interested refugees: according to NBS, in less than 24 hours there were 160 invitations from all over Brazil.
The work now is to hook the families up with the refugees. The problem is that since Migraflix is located in São Paulo, most of the refugees selected are in the city. Only the invitations are coming from all across Brazil, with people willing to even pay for the guests’ air tickets. That led NBS to get in touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to find NGOs and refugees in other states.
Refugees can still register at www.meuamigorefugiado.com.br.
All registrants are shown on the site. Each is featured with a photo and a short bio, plus the button “Convide para o seu Natal” (Invite for your Christmas), which leads to a registration form. A team will work on making the arrangements, and the people involved will be in for a different Christmas, in the least, and good learning opportunities for everyone.
But that’s not all: Berezovsky explains that the plan is to follow through with the campaign after Christmas. “We want to have as many meetings as possible: not only Christmas, but the New Year too, and maybe even once a month,” he claims.
“I am constantly trying to explain Muslims and Islam to people. I’m not like the Islamic State, I’m different, we are different,” says Muna Darweesh. Thanks to the campaign, she may have another opportunity soon.
Quick facts
Campaign: “My Refugee Friend”
Website: www.meuamigorefugiado.com.br
Facebook: www.facebook.com/meuamigorefugiado
Video: https://youtu.be/p577E0RwKKw
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
