HomeCity NewsSan Marino Rotary Learns More About Europe’s Refugee Crisis

San Marino Rotary Learns More About Europe’s Refugee Crisis

San Marino Rotarians heard from an Iranian refugee who became inspired after a trip to Greece to help many of the millions of people fleeing their war-torn countries in the Middle East for Europe.

Damian Ardestani spoke at San Marino Rotary’s April 7 luncheon meeting about what led him and a friend to begin the nonprofit organization I AM YOU.

“He’s here to talk about what he’s encountered in his journey building one of the most active relief organizations in the refugee crisis,” San Marino Rotary President-Elect Gilda Moshir said.

Ardestani, who spends a lot of time in Los Angeles, is a Swedish recording artist who goes by the name XOV. He wrote music for “The Hunger Games” soundtrack and has collaborated with many singers, most notably Lorde. While he was doing promotions in Germany last year, the press began asking him many questions about the European refugee crisis.

“I myself came to Sweden as a refugee when I was 1,” Ardestani said. “All of these journalists were asking what I think of the refugee crisis and what’s going on in Greece with all of these refugees drowning when crossing the ocean.”

He said he didn’t really identify with being a refugee because he was only a year old when his parents brought him to Sweden from Iran.

“So I decided to go to Lesbos, Greece just to be able to find out and answer all of these questions with some first-hand experience,” Ardestani said.

He traveled to Lesbos on Oct. 21, 2015 with his friend Rebecca Reshdouni, co-founder of I AM YOU. Ardestani said they first encountered thousands and thousands of lifejackets left by refugees along the shoreline of Lesbos. He said he expected to see lifeguards, police officers, firefighters and other government workers helping these refugees to shore, but there were only volunteers. Ardestani and Reshdouni then, themselves, began to get in the ocean to help children reach land.

“We ended up spending those five days jumping into the water and driving the injured to the hospital,” he said.

His Iranian heritage also allowed him to communicate in the Dari language with many of the Afghan refugees.

“I had this vital role where I had to translate for the doctors and for the police,” he said, adding that he was asked to consult on important medical decisions.

Ardestani shared stories about the people, whom he said were mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, he met while he was volunteering in Lesbos.

Damian Ardestani
Damian Ardestani

“Every day is like a lifetime because every day you experience all of the human emotions there are,” he said. “You experience sadness, frustration and sorrow. At the same time, you feel hope because there are so many other volunteers to rescue people. Every day there was a roller coaster of emotions.”

Ardestani said the migrant children moved him the most.

“Are 100 percent of these refugees good people who will never cause any problems?” he asked. “Absolutely not. But there is big majority of innocent people and innocent children who have done nothing to deserve the fate that has been given to them.”

Ardestani said the Red Cross and United Nations High Commission for Refugees don’t have enough resources to handle the size and scale of the European refugee crisis.

He said he soon learned that smugglers who organize the rafts often offer a 50 percent discount to cross the ocean from Turkey to Greece during stormy weather.

“That’s when the poorest families with the most children cross the ocean,” Ardestani said. “As a result, that’s when most children drown. Last year alone, 4,000 people drowned making that journey.”

He said they pay more than $2,000 per person to make the journey across the ocean. Ardestani said the smugglers often drug children on the raft so they don’t cause any commotion.

Ardestani and Reshdouni decided on their last day in Lesbos that they wanted to do something to help the European refugee crisis by creating I AM YOU to coordinate volunteers. It was running within two weeks with professional nurses, doctors, firefighters and translators.

“Our main focus has been coordination,” Ardestani said. “We coordinate the hundreds of volunteers who arrive to the Greek islands, giving them a task. All of these people are wet. They have no clothes. They have no blankets. They have no food. At the same time, there are storages all around Greece that are filled with aid, blankets and food. But there’s no one doing the work of actually distributing these items to the people who need them.”

He said I AM YOU set up the largest coordination effort with rescue teams in Greece by using an app. Ardestrani said the refugees do have smartphones that they used to send distress coordinates from their raft in the ocean to rescuers to find them.

“Through that technology, we could cross-reference where we are and make sure that a team will be close to them, wherever they are arriving,” Ardestani said, adding that the UNHCR got buses for migrants to board after they got off their boat.

He said I AM YOU, which has had more than 200 volunteers supporting its cause, is focusing now on refugee camp management.

Ardestani ended his presentation by saying, “If you can make one life better, you can make the world better.”

For more information on I AM YOU, visit www.iamyou.se. Donations to the 501c3 organization can be made on this website or by mailing a check to Jay R. Halfon, Sustainable Markets Foundation, 45 West 36th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10018-7635.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=3]

27