I've recently become a befriender for a Syrian family who arrived 6 weeks ago.
They arrived with nothing. And not the nothing you and I might imagine - actually nothing. Nothing at all.
They cannot speak or understand English. They've been housed in an area riddled with its own social & economic problems.
There are resources in place to support the resettlement programme, but they're not ideal by any manner of means.
I've been working with a small group of volunteers to support these families & we consider ourselves very lucky to be doing so, but I want to dispel some myths. These are genuine concerns that have been voiced to me recently by people I know. There isn't a disproportionate amount of young single Syrian men arriving by the plane load - it's primarily young families with children. If there happens to be a young man on his own, that's probably because his whole family have been murdered. The refugees are not opportunists - they are fleeing from unthinkable violence. They are not here to milk the system - they are keen to work & integrate. They are only entitled to claim minimal benefits & they are very grateful for them.
If you've spoken to me privately questioning whether I should be helping at all, I hope when you tuck your children in tonight you hug them extra tight & let's hope it's never your children, or my children, or anyone's children forced to flee their homeland & start again in a place they didn't choose, where they can't speak or understand the language & the abject terror of the things they've seen never leaves them. The saddest thing is, they're the lucky ones.
Friends have already donated so much & I'm hugely grateful for their generosity & willingness to help.
Whilst our merry band of volunteers are happy to do everything we can, none of us can indefinitely provide everything we'd like to & we must garner goodwill & generosity from wherever we can find it - in the words of Bob Geldof: "Give us your f*cking money."