The last Saturday of August 2013

Photo from the first summer camp

In the summer of 2013, when the first group of war refugees from Syria arrived in Germany, they were suffering from a lot of psychological pressure. I remember one of the children I visited at the refugee camp in the city of Kiel to see two of my Syrian friends. From my friends' room, we heard the sound of someone collapsing in the kitchen of the camp. After going to the kitchen, we found the body of a man who had collapsed on the floor and had lost consciousness due to taking a large number of pills (with the intention of suicide). We called an ambulance.

My friend said: "He lost all his family in the war, and he often talked about wanting to die."

The mental state of the people in the camp was very poor.

After leaving the camp, I decided to organize a summer camp to uplift the spirits of the refugees.

With the support of the ZBBS association and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, we were able to provide food and drinks to have a good day, and we took all the families living in the camp to the beach.

After that day ended, a Syrian woman came to me and said, “Since the start of the war until today, today has been the best day of my life.”

I decided to organize a summer camp for refugees every year until the situation in the Middle East changes.

At the same time, since we are all victims of the dictators in our countries, it seems that this summer camp could be a good opportunity to spread the culture of peace and coexistence.

Therefore, we decided to organize workshops every year during the camp to exchange ideas and discuss how to promote the culture of coexistence and peace in the world, especially in the Middle East.