Jason Florio
Every day, 8,000 people flee Syria. Aisha escaped with her four children through Africa and then on a large fishing boat in the Mediterranean. She’s pictured here on a migrant rescue ship.
During a June downpour, Dr. Tarif Bakdash shared a bleak reality about life in Syria with 80 people at Threshold on Atwood Avenue.
“Every 30 seconds a Syrian child becomes a refugee,” said Bakdash, a member of the Syrian American Medical Society of Milwaukee. “I am going to introduce you to the level of suffering that the children are going through. This is to evoke sympathy.”
Images of children strewn in haphazard rows — some missing faces, others limbs, all casualties of war — spilled across a screen. “There are 1,400 orphans in one group who’ve lost both parents,” Bakdash said. He then showed images of people fleeing, pooling into streets in droves. “These are not terrorists.”
These graphic photos were an attempt to spur Madisonians to offer support for what Bakdash calls “the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.”
The event was sponsored by a newly formed nonprofit, Open Doors for Refugees, founded by Efrat Livny, an east-side arts therapist who also started Threshold, a space on Atwood Avenue that houses healing arts businesses and events.
Last year, President Barack Obama pledged to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees by Sept. 30, 2016. The U.S. has so far admitted about two-thirds of that number. Gov. Scott Walker has opposed this effort. Although Walker doesn’t have the authority to bar them from the state, he could deny them services.
With her husband, Ken Baun, Livny has reached out to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists to support relief efforts. “How can nothing going on be acceptable for us?” asks Livny. “Big things start with little things, like this effort that came out of a conversation. Now social service agencies and knowledgeable citizens have come together to open doors for refugees.”
According to the Syrian American Medical Society, 220,000 Syrians have been massacred, with 8,000 fleeing the country daily and 12.2 million more in need of help.
Bakdash said every 28 minutes a Syrian is killed, and 80% are living below poverty level. “The cost of rebuilding the country is $250 billion,” he added.
Livny’s vision to bring speakers like Bakdash to Madison took hold in November after she purchased a Soup for Syria cookbook, a collection of Syrian and Middle Eastern soup recipes published as a fundraiser. Her interest was primarily to make great soup, but she was quickly inspired to do more to help.
By February, Livny had created her own “Soup for Syria” event. Bunky’s served the participants soup while they listened to Kelly Hora, a Madison acupuncturist, talk about her experience working at a Syrian refugee camp in Greece.
The June event raised $1,200, which will be split between Bakdash’s organization and local refugee support.
“Our intention is to raise awareness and then work with agencies to see how we can supplement their efforts to welcome the refugees,” said Livny.
The group has since formed partnerships with Lutheran Social Services and Jewish Social Services. Both agencies are experienced in resettling refugees and will assist Open Doors for Refugees in getting food, clothing, housing, employment and education to people from any country.
Currently Lutheran Social Services places 100 refugees per year in the Madison area. Jewish Social Services, in partnership with HIAS (a national resettlement agency that works with federal refugee placement programs), has a pending agreement, based on approval from the state, to place 50 refugees from many countries in Madison starting this fall.
Doors for Refugees will hold a fund-raising picnic Aug. 7, 11 a.m.-3 p.m, at Olin Park. The event includes a potluck picnic, music and games. For information contact Efrat Livny at 608-220-8849 or OpenDoorsForRefugees@gmail.com.
