Sharing With Refugees

March 2016 our lives were changed.That was when my husband Andre and I  began meeting the 1000 unaccompanied child refugees in Calais, France.  We volunteered at The Jungle refugee camp. 1000 children.    Ages  8-18.....alone.  


    In 2018, we  volunteered  with refugees from  Camp Moria, in Lesvos , Greece, with the non-profit "One Happy Family", for the month of February. Then we  volunteered for two weeks in Athens, Greece with a
non profit, feeding 100's of refugees daily and also providing clothes, shoes, diapers, medicine, and  other needs.   We became friends with several families, who were in desperate need for housing and food till
they could get work. So we continued to sell  hats on our return to support these  families. 
            What we discovered in this last year is that vulnerable children/families and individual refugees
need basic support for survival, until they can get on their feet. Once they get asylum , learn the language of the country they are in, and find jobs, then they can support themselves and their families. 
            We want to provide support to refugees at Camp Moria, in Greece, through raising money for a non
profit called “Home for All”, that we actually connected with during the month we volunteered in Lesvos, Greece.  We also want to support Care 4 Calais, who we volunteered with in Calais France. Both these
organizations are doing incredible work with refugees. Our third area of support is with individual refugees and families that we have been helping, till they can get work and support themselves.  
              The last group we have supported is Afghanistan widows, children and elderly starving in Afghanistan since Covid hit.  In December 2020  we  helped to start a sewing school, with 10 widows learning to sew!  We purchased 10 sewing machines and irons, scissors, material and other sewing supplies.  Each student received a sewing machine  and supplies after successfully completing the 6 month course on July 15, 2021.  Our second class of 12 students started on August 1, 2021.  We  also rented an apartment for our sewing school in January, 2021 and our head teacher and her husband moved in. (The instructor is donating her time, so this helps  provide
support for her!)  and we bought furnishings, a coal stove, coal, and pay the rent each month.  
       As of August 15, 2021 our school has had to close, due to the Taliban take over. Our teachers and students have been told to stay in their homes, all of them are food insecure, unable to earn anything at this time from their sewing or other means. We are now raising money through our GoFundMe  account, to send money to our teacher, who is organizing a food drive for us. Grocery staples will be bought for 31 families. (hopefully that will last them for several weeks).  Thanks to all who have donated.  Prayers are also appreciated. Hoping someday I will be able to report our school opening again!  To follow what is happening, you can go to my face book page,  Sharing With Refugees.  
 (We started this campaign around 2018.  With donations we have been able to support individual refugees, refugee families, small refugee projects including Care4Calais, Home for All, Fund a Food Drop, Dirty Girls, Phone Credit for Refugees ,  Rando Wagner's apartment for refugees in Athens, the Shower Project in Athens and now  our sewing school in Kabul.)      
100% of donations go to refugees.   no salaries, no overhead,  100% given for refugees go to refugees!   Thanks so much for being a part of this!

Love wins!

See a video of the sewing school class in action at Face book page:  Sharing With Refugees 

https://www.facebook.com/1679945547/videos/10216789199197211/


                 (Photo of the opening of the sewing school in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec 31, 2020)

( photo of our granddaughter )



  Our goal in 2018 was to take  300 HATS  to refugee kids!  WE did it!   The kids LOVED the
hats! But it cost us $600 to get the hats to Greece, from NC!  In 2020 we  made over 500  hats and we
sell them for a  donation of $37, to raise money for refugees.  You can visit our online store at:
www.sharingwithrefugees.com    ( We  have many other handmade items, including original paintings, prints, handmade scarves and scarf pins and other items!)   You can also follow us on facebook at: 
Sharing With Refugees.  

You can  read about our volunteering in France, March,  2016 and in Greece in February 2018 )  at:         
www.joannaylor.blogspot.com   

65 million refugees, seems impossible to deal with. How do we help?  Share their stories. Volunteer.
Donate. Pray. Even though the world seems dark right now, always remember, each of us, banded
together, can be the light!  
How do we  help 65 million refugees?    One at a time.  
We can do this.  
Love wins!

THANK YOU!

joan and andre



(300 handmade, knitted hats with fun  animals on them were  given out to refugee children in Camp Moria, in February, 2018)