Movie: Human Flow

Movie: HUMAN FLOW

I managed to catch this movie on January 15th at Grail Movie House. It was a deeply upsetting film, even though I am well aware of the refugee crisis the world is now facing. I saw scenes of women trying to cross rushing streams, loosing their balance, and seeing their shoes float away downstream. I saw many people carrying babies and young children, I would estimate that about a third to half of all the refugees (outside of the Palestinians) are children. The refugees from Palestine are different - well over half of them are children. Almost no one had a real suitcase with wheels on it, they just had bags with all their earthly possessions in it, or sometimes backpacks. At several places, they had to abandon what few possessions they had - to get in trucks to take them somewhere, or get in rafts to cross the sea, or just to cross a stream. There were scenes of people camped in mud beside rail road tracks, and I mean right beside them. They could have stuck out their hands and the trains would have hit them. There were scenes of masses of people camped out in the desert.

The human suffering was massive. The stories these refugees shared were heartbreaking. Stories like watching your two year old drown, or watching your elderly parents get sick and die without a hint of medical help. It is a scale of suffering that I am sure would overwhelm me if I had to live in conditions that they face. They told lots of stories of why they were driving from their homes also.

The movie did a great job of respecting the dignity of everyone they filmed. It also did a great job of showing how extensive this problem is - there are now millions of refugees on this planet, a lot of them from areas where the US/UK started up their hideous wars - Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya. There are lots of refugees from places in Africa also, some running from terrorism, some running from climate disruption. They also covered the Palestinian refugees and the refugees from Myanmar.

The problem is massive. One thing I do every month is contribute to Collateral Repair Project, and I have also donated to AFSC and Mennonite charities dealing with refugees from Iraq and Syria.

The movie “Human Flow” will only be at the Grail MovieHouse a couple more days, but if you can catch it, I would highly recommend seeing this movie.

I am including a recent email from Collateral Repair Project in case you are interested in supporting them in helping refugees. There are other organizations supporting refugees, but I definitely would not recommend organizations like the Red Cross, World Relief, or International Rescue Committee. They are too big and too political and too wasteful. They seem to pay less attention to what the refugees want and more attention to what the political powers in the west want. I like the smaller organizations, who seem to be more in tune with what the people they are helping actually need.

Dancewater

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lilly Crown, Collateral Repair Project <info@collateralrepairproject.org>
Subject: Connect with refugees over Skype, Susan

Our supporters are incredible. Thanks to you, we exceeded our end-of-year campaign goal and raised $92,000. This money will help us feed more families, create more programming, and give more options to the vulnerable urban refugees and needy Jordanians living in Amman.

We are very grateful to you. We're grateful to you for donating, for sharing our posts, for forwarding our emails. You are truly part of this community.

It means a lot that we can always count on you to be so involved in CRP's Family Resource and Community Center even when you are so far away.

And so it's with that in mind that we're thrilled to announce our new eLearning program, in which we will start a new English-conversation program via Skype.

We're looking for a few volunteers with a couple of hours to spare a week and reliable internet to act as English conversation partners. We'll pair you up with a student from our center.

Read our blog post about the new program or get in touch with Ashleigh, our TEFL coordinator, at ashpassuello@gmail.com.





Today, Ashleigh introduced the program to a group of intermediate English students at CRP. They were very excited. Some have already signed up. Naseer, an Iraqi refugee and English student said, "This will be a great way to improve our English and an excellent chance to practice with native English speakers!"

Practicing English over Skype will make a huge difference in our students' learning.

We're looking for five more volunteers to help with the program. If you know someone interested, please forward this email to them!

Gratefully yours,

Lilly Crown
Programming & Administrative Manager

PS: Did New Year's come and go and you forgot to donate to our campaign? We understand. The holidays can be hectic. But we take donations year round! You can donate here.