It was good for me to find a way to contribute. Even though I would like to contribute more, I feel like I am at least doing something. And that is exactly Trude’s thought, every drop counts. – Margrethe Rose
Every drop counts
The reunion – a story about a mothers struggle to reunite with her children
This week a year ago the twingirls Lamar and Lorin landed in Norway together with the sisters Marya and Maya after being apart from their Syrian mother Abeer for 21 months. A Drop in the Ocean has previously written about Abeer and her story. Read the whole story about the long and dramatic struggle to reunite with her children and what really happened here.
Three layers of understanding
I usually say there are two different means of understanding something.The rational and the emotional. If a child melts a straw in the flame of a candle, it will realise on a rational level that it might hurt if it sticks its finger in there. This lesson might be remembered throughout the child´s life, but it also might not. Yet if the child sticks its finger into the flame and does get burned, the lesson will be leaned emotionally. It will be in the childs´ memory forever. With news it is similar. We will hear, see or read about them and relate to them rationally. Unfortunately the overflow of (negative) information makes us protect ourselves and almost numb things out in the pursuit to stay happy and sane in an already difficult-enough every day life. In the case of the refugee crisis -through people around me and myself- I experienced three layers of understanding…
Touching encounters in Drop – Center, Moria
As a volunteer in Lesvos, you get to meet a lot of wonderful people who touch your heart and soul in a number of ways. Yesterday, we had two such encounters at our Drop Centre in Moria Village. First, as we prepared for our daily English class, a local, Greek, elderly woman stopped by our centre with some beautiful flowers. This was the second time this week that she stopped by to give us flowers. To us, these gifts symbolized our increasing acceptance in the village and the friendly relations we have cultivated with our local neighbours. This is so important, especially since many of the people in the village were initially sceptical to host foreign volunteers and a centre for refugees.
The bravest woman of the year 2018 – Trude Jacobsen
I have not even prepared a thank you speech, I never thought it would be me. I’m very happy, but this is not just my award, there are so many who have dropped everything they had in their hands and helped establish this new Norwegian NGO. I also hope that the price can help to focus on women on the run. And then I have to thank my family – I went to Greece for three days and came home as a completely different person. – Trude Jacobsen after receiving the prize 13. October 2018