Show notes
Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by a long time partner, Paraskevi Champeridou. Paraskevi, affectionately referred to as Voula, is the director of the Syrian Humanitarian Initiative, BRIDGES. She co-established a holistic restoration and integration approach for Syrian refugees passing into Greece daily. Together, they examine how refugees are vulnerable to further victimization and exploitation.
Key Points
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence, according to UNHCR.
Victimization on the hosting land causes the refugees to die in small doses. This occurs through political decisions, exploitation, lack of material assistance, poor legal protections, denial of their new reality compared to their expectations, long geographical restrictions to camps, distorted religion realities, lack of communication, a different legal system, and bureaucracy.
Once a person becomes a refugee, they are likely to remain a refugee for many years. Many will be displaced for nearly two decades, causing a life in limbo.
Voula says, "We cannot talk about integration if we shall not speak about a holistic approach. If we fail to keep Spirit, Soul, and Body united then we fail freedom, healing, restoration, new life."
Resources
BRIDGES
UNHCR
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Transcript
Dave: [00:00:00] You're listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 194, Is the Refugee Crisis Over?
Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.
Dave: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.
Sandie: [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.
Dave: [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, yet another friend today who has been a partner for so long in this work to end human trafficking. We have a guest here in the studio who is a longtime friend of yours.
Sandie: [00:00:57] I am so, excited to have Paraskevi Champeridou from Athens, Greece. She was here speaking at Ensure Justice 2019. If you missed it, please be sure to go online and look at the links to see what you missed and plan to come next year 2020. Paraskevi Champeridou is also, known to me as Voula and I've known her for so, many years, I don't want to say how many years. She's a mother, a wife of 25 years, she has two daughters 20 and 16, she's a social worker and a family counselor. She had been working as a private counselor for many years teaching human relationships in Athens, Greece and has been participating, speaking, and organizing many conferences on mental health, family relationships, domestic violence, and human trafficking. But in 2013 she and her husband, Elias, established the NGO humanitarian initiative, BRIDGES, as they foresaw that huge waves of Syrian refugees would pass through Greece, and that happened in 2015. Now they envision their holistic restoration and full integration. She is the legal representative of BRIDGES, working with her husband to give voice to the voiceless and victimized refugees who are daily passing from Greece. Voula welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast.
Voula: [00:02:30] Thank you, it's a privilege to be here.
Sandie: [00:02:32] We are so, happy to have you! On Friday when you spoke about the refugees at Ensure Justice, you quoted someone as explaining their plight as "all gone". Can you explain that for us?
Voula: [00:02:47] Yes, it's a real quotation,