The Foundation, in the last weeks, has increased its awareness activities dealing with the hard situation that the Syrian refugees are going through, more specifically, their situation in the refugee camps of Za’atary an Azraq in Lebanon, where the FPSC develops humanitarian aid projects.
From 17th to 21st of April, the Senara Foundation organized, in line with its project “Welcome to Europe”, a gathering of European young people with jobs in Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus and Greece in order to promote awareness on the situation of refugees with whom they work in their countries of origin.
The main goal of this great initiative was to raise European young people’s awareness on the situation of refugees and encourage them to help other people become aware of this situation, but also to incentivize voluntary service assisting people recently arrived in Europe coming from this war context or live in refugee camps here.
The attendants took part in different educational activities programmed throughout the week, mainly focused on how to make young people in their counties aware of the living conditions of refugees. They shared as well their experience in working with refugees.
On the 17th and 18th of April, José Luis Zatarain, Communication and Volunteering Director of the FPSC gave two workshops addressing the situation of refugees on the ground and the awareness campaigns on refugees, respectively.
On April the 6th the FPSC took part in two tables, one on social organizations and the other with a general debate, in the event arranged by the Department of Social Sciences and Communication of the European University “Educate for research-action: Refugees in Europe“.
José Luis Zatarain shared the social organizations table with José Zamora, Coordinator of the Refugee Program of the Community of Madrid from the provincial office of Red Cross Spain. Fátima Gómez-Sota, Professor of Sociology in the European University and Leticia Flórez-Estrada Chassonnaud, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the European University were the moderators of this debate.
The Discussion Panel also counted with the participation of José Manuel Sedes, Sutainability and Quality Director in Vodafone Spain, Pablo Martín, Director of Corresponsables and Ignacio Sacaluga Director of the Communication Department in the European University.
All tables counted with a high participation of the University students, who actively intervened on the debates generated around the different tables.
On April 21st, José Luis Zatarain also gave a presentation on refugees in Las Veredillas High School in Torrejón de Ardoz. It was quite surprising how much all the school community envolved. Initiated by some mothers from the Association of Students’ Parents (AMPA), the teachers and the students, they promoted the settlement of a charitable stand exclusively dedicated to FPSC’s projects at the Party of the School (which took place one week after) in order to help refugees in Azraq and Za’atari refugee camps.
Eventually, the following weeks, the FPSC took part in different educational workshops arranged by FEVOCAM and its member NGO’s on voluntary service and social communication addressed to university students in Madrid. Through the development of the workshops the students are encouraged to become promoters and mediators of volunteering activities by means of their enrolment in a competition of awareness campaigns (¿Take the risk?).
The workshops that counted with the participation of the FPSC were held May the 30th at FEVOCAM’s headquarters, April the 6th at the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, and also with students of the Universidad Politécnica and the Universidad Complutense in the facilities of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos of Madrid on April the 20th.
Last May 13th the Town Hall of Sant Pol de Mar (Barcelona) set up a conference about the situation that the Syrian refugees are suffering in their neighboring countries and the FPSC’s work in its Mental Health Clinic in Lebanon as well as the clinics of the Foundation in the refugee camps of Za’atari and Azraq in the North of Jordan, where they receive mobility aids and long-term rehabilitation and physical therapy treatments.
The conference was developed by Enric Roig, Humanitarian Aid Director of the FPSC, and José Luis Zatarain. Both of them were previously on the local radio “Radio Litoral”, where they were interviewed about the same issues.
The conference counted with the presence of Sant Pol de Mar’s Mayer and with great attendance of public, which asked many questions and showed a great deal of engagement.