‘After what we suffered in the Holocaust 70 years ago, how can we not help tens of thousands seeking refuge from wars in the Middle East and Africa?’
Streams of desperate refugees flooding Europe from the Middle East, Asia and Africa are getting a helping hand from IsraAID, a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in Israel in 2001 to bring lifesaving disaster relief and long-term support wherever needed.
“We are running a campaign with the goal of inspiring the Jewish people and Israel to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees washed up on the shores of Europe,” says IsraAID Director Shachar Zahavi.
As of Tuesday evening, the NGO had raised enough money to send three professionals, who will land early Wednesday in Athens and then later proceed to Lesbos. Zahavi tells ISRAEL21c that he hopes to send additional volunteers to help manage the European migrant crisis currently overwhelming several countries.
“First we’ll tend to psychosocial needs and then we’ll do an assessment of physical needs, and purchase food or non-food items in the areas where we’re working. We need to buy locally to make sure efforts are coordinated and we don’t bring stuff from Israel that we’d just have to bring back afterward.”
The current refugee crisis in Europe is considered the largest since World War II. Vast numbers of displaced people fleeing war and economic chaos are attempting to reach southern European shores by boat, road and rail, with often fatal results.
According to the United Nations, more than 2,500 migrants and refugees have died or gone missing this year while crossing the Mediterranean Sea. The most recent tragedy occurred this week in Turkey, when the bodies of Syrian refugees Aylan Kurdi, 3, and his brother Galip, 5, washed ashore after their overcrowded dinghy capsized on its way to Greece. Their mother also perished.
“I think Jews have a responsibility, after the Holocaust in Europe only 70 years ago, to get involved and actually become leaders in this. We know, more than others, what happened when countries wouldn’t accept Jewish refugees of atrocities,” says Zahavi, who has been involved in disaster relief for more than 25 years.