The disastrous refugee crisis in Europe affects all of us. Over the past years the tone against refugees got very harsh and it can be really frustrating not being able to do anything against how people are being treated. There are people who focus on trying to help refugees who fled from terrible war zones or political repression. Michael Räber is one of them. On vacation in Greece he decided on the spot to not return home, but to help. This bold step led to the foundation of Schwizerchrüz and One Happy Family (OHF). Organisations trying to ease the tragedy these people are forced to go through.
The interesting fact of OHF and Schwizerchrüz is that they help by inventing a currency - they let people decide what to buy themselves. Whatever they need most. For some it might be a pile of t-shirts, for others a good coffee per day. These organisations aren’t focussing on distribution of what we think is needed, but on people's needs.
Why this blogpost on our website? As Liipers we got affected by the crisis too. All of us - through horrible images. Some through personal experiences with relatives. As a company we try to help. By supporting a great initiative: Powercoders, where Mannar and Rami actually found Liip, or we found them. People like Rami or Mannar fled from Iraq and Syria. And also, by donations. Cash of course, but also by donating material. Like we did a few months back, in cooperation with Freitag: we shipped a big pile of Freitag bags to Lesvos. Mostly, refugees living in tents carry their belongings with them. Therefore robust and sturdy bags are really important. OHF set up a store for people to buy the bags of their choices. And it seems to work quite well - have a look at the video.
We won’t stop supporting this kind of projects. What about you? #ohf-donate