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2023

Struggles all around refugees

23/11/2016

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A text written by Charlotte S. inspired by the Project "Coming together - Bringing down barriers" of Praxis Greece
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“Germany, Germany” - that’s what everybody knows to say.
“My Father and my uncle are in Germany and I will come soon”. But who, when, if, where somebody will go – God only knows… or in our case “Melek Taus” only knows.


Since September about 400 refugees live in the camp of Serres. All of them are from northern Iraq speaking Kurdish. They all belong to their ethnically Kurdish religious community of Yazidis and here we are. In the centre of their believe stands “Melek Taus” the Peacock Angel, the seven miracles and sheik ʿAdī ibn Musāfir (1073–1163). Because it is already complicated enough to organize a refugee camp itself it helps a lot to have only people of the same religion together even if this situation of being separated is not possible forever hence religion will bring up a lot more complications in future…

“A refugee is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely.”

Why Kurdish people from Iraq had to flee? Four letters should be enough as explanation: ISIS. Or what they always mention “Daesh”. Exactly in the area of the Kurdish minority in Iraq ISIS is being active in the moment. Hence a lot of people and inhabitants fled to turkey. Suddenly their normal life turned into the life of a refugee. What is the life of a refugee like? Uncertainty. You get sent from one place to the other, one person says this, the other person that – nobody knows. And you? You just want to reach your destination, have a normal life, security.
 
“Anywhere. Anything is better than this” he said as a tear trickled down his cheek
 
After the “mass invasion” of refugees coming to Greece the past years a lot of camps are in terrible circumstances. But I am asking, what do you expect as refugee? Especially when you know that you will be not the only one who flees. To fall back on the quote, would it really have been better if he stayed in Syria?


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November 21st, 2016

21/11/2016

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Multicultural Broadcast

We, the volunteers from Praxis Greece, are working together with the refugees living near Serres since more than one month now. This work not only includes three different language courses (German, Greek and English) but also a weekly radio music broadcast. Last Friday we had the first broadcast where we presented different kinds of music: music from Germany, from Spain, from Greece, from Italy, from France, from Afghanistan and from Iraq. In total we were about fifteen moderators, the six volunteers from Praxis Greece, one Greek friend of ours, one male refugee and around seven little girls. The refugees, which are all from Iraq, enriched our broadcast not only with Iraqian music but also with their own voices singing some of their favorite songs.
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November 11th, 2016

11/11/2016

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This Tuesday and Wednesday, the 8th and 9th of november, we (Pauline Coiffard and Juliane Genn) got the possibility to join the Annual Meeting of Eurosite ‘16. This year’s theme “Ecosystems at your service: how to incorporate ecosystem services into practical site management” is not only presented and discussed in a seminar on the first day of the Annual Meeting but also during an excursion to Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece.
We started the day with plenary session in which different guests speakers explained their views and definitions of what is Ecosystem services and how we can use this concept for concrete environmental cases in companies, NGO’s and Public Services.
The first speaker, Ben Delbaere, Head of Programme Operations (ECNC - European Centre for Nature Conservation) defined ecosystem service as “the direct & indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being” and explains us, with examples of models, how we managed (the stakeholders) to put a price of nature.
The second speech we got to hear, which was delivered by Irene Bouwa from Alterra, gave us a Nature Outlook for 2050. For this, she presented four different possible developments: strengthening cultural identity, allowing nature to find its way, going with the economic flow and working with the nature; and she finished with the conclusion that it is not easy to combine all these perspectives. Furthermore another obstacle is that no one has only one point of view on this matter and this because we do not even agree on what is the nature we want to preserve: is it the flowers on your balcony? A natural park that had been shaped by mankind? Is an highway somehow nature?
Does it has to be untouched by men to be nature or are we as humans part of the ecosystem services that we value, and if so why are infrastructures not being considered as nature as well? We went out of the second speech with more questions than we had while entering it.
The third presentation was given by Paul Leadbitter who is the Peatland Programme Manager from the North Pennines AONB Partnership in the UK. He pointed out the importance of peat and presented the efforts of his company to protect and restore the peat in Britain. Peat is a soil that contains a high proportion of organic matter which is able to restore emissions of CO²:
After a little coffee break those theoretical presentations we shared some practical examples.

After a very pleasant lunch break, all the participants were separated into 3 differents workshops:
  • Workshop 1: Towards a market system for nature credits?
  • Workshop 2: Natural capital - getting others involved
  • Workshop 3: Tools and assessments of ecosystem services
We were lucky enough to assist workshop 1 and 3. In the first one we learn about the motivations and possible objectives of establishing a market system for protected nature and in the second, which was more interactive we asked ourselves what kind of model or tool we would need to analyse the ecosystem service of our organisation.
Finally we went back to plenary session to talk about the key outcomes and seminar conclusion of the intense day!

The next day a field trip to Lake Kerkini was organized and hosted by the Management Body of Kerkini Lake National Park. We started the day by going into the wetland of the lake to observe flamingos and water buffalos. After we went to visit Saint Jones Women Monastery with a great view over the lake, then we went to the tourist office to meet some of the scientists who work to protect the ecosystem of the artificial lake, which is one of the greatest birding site in Greece.
Actually the lake hosts 227 kinds of birds, especially non-migrants. 76 of them are recorded in the National Red Catalogue. What makes an exceptional presence is the buffalo's herd in the area.In the surrounding area of Kerkini lake there are at least 10 amphibian species (frogs, salamanders, tritons), five snail species, 19 reptile species (lizards, snakes, turtles) and a great variety of insects which play an important part in the food chain and contribute towards the biological resources of the lake.
After another pleasant lunch the planned boat tour on lake Kerkini had to be cancelled due to the weather. Instead we returned to Serres by bus on a way right next to the lake where we also had a little stop to enjoy the sunset and to observe pelicans.

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