奧地利和難民 AUSTRIA AND THE REFUGEES

The following example shows that although life isn’t always wonderful, we can do our part to make this world a better place. There are already a few human beings which contribute to this. One of these world-improving initiatives I want you to tell about in this article.

Within the last view months more than 1000 people are crossing the borders within Europe every single day. For most of them Germany seems to be the final target, so they are just passing by in Austria for there is no better, shorter way to reach Germany. But some of the refugees – about 56.000 (!) from January to September 2015, approximately up to 95.000 until the end of this year - want to get permission to live in Austria. These are about five times more requests for residence permits than in 2014. So it can be imagined that our government is overcharged – nearly unable to cope with so many people, which need food, clothes and a warm bed to sleep in. Thank God there are so many Austrian people, which offer their help for free. I don’t want to withhold the information, that not every single one in Austria is delighted with the many foreign people. Some people of our population are even afraid of the religion and behavior of the immigrants, but there are also many compatriots, which are helping these people every day in their own leisure time. And exactly from a couple of these people I want to tell you about.

There are many volunteers, who are buying food, hygiene products and other things for daily life from their own money; they also collect clothes both for children and adults, which they are handing out at the borders, railway stations and in front of refugee camps. They do this all without earning any money. One of the biggest camps in Austria is the Traiskirchen refugee camp in Lower Austria. Especially from June to September, as thousands of people in need crossed our borders each day, people laden their cars with collected and bought things and distributed it especially in front of the refugee camp in Traiskirchen, although the government had tried to prohibited it. They also drove to the borders in Hungary and handed out beverages, fruits, bread and baby foods. Some volunteers exclusively have gone by car to Hungary to give the refugees a lift to Austria.

But they do not only these things, but also make their selves useful by teaching the German language and culture and sharing their own flat with these people. They all do this although they don’t know them. Especially to take people with another culture and religion in to your own flat for weeks and months is a challenge for both parts, because the hosts are foreigners too. They also have a different culture and religion, which are able to irritate the new guests. So it can be imagined, that both parts need time to get to know each other. At the end of this post I want to give you a couple of special insights.

I know a 52 years old female teacher, who went about 50 miles by car to our capital Vienna each Saturday in September to hand out clothes and food to the refugees. She did it for free, for she couldn’t stand the news on TV no longer sitting herself passively in her own well-tempered flat. Another 38 years old woman is teaching a whole family the German language for three weeks now besides her spending clothes and food time and again. And even in our small village called Pernitz, where just about 1900 inhabitants do live, three private persons/families are sharing their household with refugees for a couple of months now.

These examples of caritas and empathy are just a few of many I know, so I am in cheerful spirits, that with the help from all of us planet earth can change into mother earth. If this will happen sooner or later is depending on all of us. What every single one of us can do is ask ourselves every day again what we can contribute to raise both our own and the mood from other creatures. Sometimes it might be only a smile we give to somebody, another day it might be hug, because improving our world doesn’t only need big actions, because sometimes it are the little things that matter more.

With this in mind I wish joy and peace to all of you!

本文由創作者投稿授權 無國界之聲 轉載請標明作者與出處 歡迎投稿E-mail: vocoe15@gmail.com