How food culture can build bridges! & make us think .... 

Did the visitors of the Syrian PopUp Kitchen enjoy the food? Are the Greek & Syrian closer to each other than we thought? 
Is there a new cross-cultural curiosity coming up in the city? 
How can integration happen practically when thinking about the large number of refugees who are likely going to stay in Greece? 

Listen to what the visitors of the event had to say! 

Interviews by: Xanthippi Lemontzoglou, Stephanie Cisowski, Milad Azad 

Syrian PopUp Kitchen - Interviews with the visitors...food for thought !

Tune in this Tuesday 12/07 18:00-20:00 (EET/UTC + 02:00) on  https://shababradio.net/ and listen to the whole interview with Kareem & more exciting features and discussions in our show "Kalispera, Shabab!"

This week on Kalispera Shabab! Kareem - Shabab Talent & Manager of the Aharnon School squat Athens

As we reported in the last episode of #KalisperaShabab, refugee families have been demonstrating in front of the Praksis office in Athens for days. 

Some of the demonstrators spoke to us about their concerns. 

They’ve been waiting for weeks to get an apartment or room,  that should be provided in frame of the relocation program during the time of waiting in Greece.  Feeling abandonned, they demand humane living conditions for them and their children. More and more refugees abandon camps, reporting worsening living conditions (heat under the burning sun, little non-nutritious food, no hygiene, rising medical conditions). 

At Praksis no one was willing to comment. The official response is that the organization has run out of any means to provide accommodation. 

Yesterday’s official press release of Praksis reads “We can’t take responsibility for matters we are not in charge for.” “Praksis is an NGO who can’t replace the state and state authorities.”  Praksis reported to UNHCR and relevant authorities.  Yesterday the NGO organized a protest march to the Ministry of Migration Policy, demanding the proper coordination of the state authorities in charge to provide safe and humane shelter and living conditions for refugees, within and outside camps. 
Latest estimations report that over 56.800 refugees are currently stranded in Greece, waiting to apply for asylum and to be relocated to other EU countries. The inhumane living conditions and months-long waiting that come with asylum and relocation bureaucracies in Greece, makes the smuggling business to other EU countries AND back to Turkey flourish. Meanwhile the EU-Turkey deal foresees that for every Syrian refugee sent back to Turkey from a Greek island, another Syrian will be relocated to another EU country. Less than 500 have been sent back, among which 2 Syrians only (by mid June).  Many refugees that are willing to go back to Turkey, report to prefer paying a smuggler, as long procedures and bureaucracies dominate even here.  

Shabab Radio reporters:  
Tariq Wady & Stephanie Cisowski 

Demonstration of refugees at the Praksis office in Athens (NGO for humanitarian programs)

We were honored to meet Kareem Kabbani at the 'Aharnon school' in Athens, a former school building that has been transformed into a refugee squat. 

Around 400 people, mainly families are living here while waiting for their relocation to other EU countries and to claim asylum. They call themselves "one big family" and organize their everyday life with much love and care.  Especially now that official camps can't keep up with providing human living conditions and NGOs report to be at their limit with providing shelter, self-organized spaces like this one, provide a much needed drop of relief in a big ocean of struggles. 

Kareem spoke with us about the squat, the neighborhood, his dreams for his new life in Europe and why he decided to stay here and help his people. 

Great conversation, great place, many great things to come!! 

Interviewee: Kareem Kabbani
By: Tariq Wady & Stephanie Cisowski

- Shabab Radio Team Athens - 

www.shababradio.net 

Kareem from Syria- singer, doer, visionary & head of the Jasmine School squat, Aharnon str. Athens

We met Dinos and Sam from Organization Earth and talked about their newest initiative "Earth Refugee". 

The Organization is dealing with innovative ways to make our cities more sustainable and green through urban agriculture. 

Why not make refugee camps a bit greener and happier too? The project "Earth Refugee" is planning innovative gardening systems and social activities that engage camp inhabitants themselves. Besides greening up the spaces, the project includes sports and educational activities.

We got curious and will follow Earth Refugee in the camps to see how all these beautiful ideas will grow to life!

Thanks, Dino & Sam for this great introduction! We wish you best of luck! 

Interviewees: 
Dinos Machairas, 
Sam Birnbaum 

Organization Earth : http://www.organizationearth.org/

The Shabab Radio Team Athens: 
Tariq Wady & Stephanie Cisowski

Music: 
Alsarah & The Nubatones - Habibi Taal 

www.shababradio.net 
 

"Earth Refugee" - urban agriculture & collaborative social activities in refugee camps in Greece

Our Shabab Radio host Tariq went out to interview local Greeks about music. A snapshot through Greek rap and Greek-Arabic fusions. 

Interview by Tariq Wady

Greek & Arabic Music - what's on, what's known - let's ask the Greeks

The Halabi-Ward family had a reason to celebrate and invited us for a Syrian tea, sharing their story with us. After being separated 10 months, father Esam, who fled from Syria to Norway, visited his wife and 3 children in Athens. They have been stuck for months in Greece, going through lengthy family re-unification bureaucracies to be together again. Meanwhile, they've been provided with no housing or assistance, and found shelter in the Aharnon school refugee squat. 

Interviewees: 
Esam El Halabi & Hasnaa El Ward 

Interview by: 
Tariq Wady & Stephanie Cisowski

Music: 
Anas & Friends - Shi Yom (One Day)

www.shababradio.net 

Family re-unification from Greece to Norway - meeting again after 10 months in Athens

Catching the voices & stories of people in the city, we often crash into big talents. 
Wajd's passion is writing poems and stories. Expressing herself in writing is what feeds her soul. We wanted to know more and hear some of her poems. And dear, do they go deep. 
Great girl with a big talent! 

www.shababradio.net 

Intervie by: Stephanie Cisowski & Tariq Wady 

Poet & writer Wajd (17) from Idlib, Syria - a Shabab Talent!

The Jasmine School - Athens together with the other refugee ‪squats‬ of ‪Athens‬ , locals and Europeans from various countries marched together to demonstrate for ‪‎open borders‬ , ‪human rights‬ for ‪‎refugees‬, against discrimination and against the closing of the squats, that give home to hundreds of refugees in the city who don't have any place to stay. The day before, the police in ‪Thessaloniki‬ raided three occupied buildings inhabited by refugees where dozens of people have been detained. While a refugee child recently died in Athens due to malnutrition. 

It's the voices of the Syrian revolution that have now reached Europe, continuing to fight for their people's rights, peace and freedom. We are now on this journey together, and this demonstration was a beautiful example for how we should walk it together. 

Tariq Wady & Stephanie Cisowski spoke with the organizers and attendants while chanting together for Syria, for our people, for all refugees, for the place we share. 

- Shabab Radio - 

Demonstration of refugee squats in Athens - 28 July 2016

Syrian Chef Khalid is following is dream in Greece, soon opening his own restaurant!
The talented chef spoiled all our taste buds at the Syrian PopUp Kitchen event by Options FoodLab in Athens. 
Listen to his story and why he's actually suggesting his Syrian fellows to stay in Greece! 



Syrian PopUp Kitchen by Options Foodlab - Interview with Chef Khalid

ومن سان سيباستيان – إسبانيا التقى شباب راديو هناك مع ضيف خاص و عزيز (محمد كروم) سوري الأصل من بانياس يعيش في إسبانيا منذ 1970
ومع بداية العام 2016 سافر محمد كروم إلى اليونان لمساعدة و دعم اللاجئين الموجدين هناك وقد زار ضيفنا جزيرة ساموس و عدة مخيمات موجودة في اليونان وقد اطلع على المشاكل و الصعوبات الي يمر بها اللاجئين و معاملة المنظمات لهم 
يقول ضيفنا انه شعر بالحزن على ما يعاني منه اللجئين بشكل عام و السوريين بشكل خاص و من هنا قرر محمد كروم أن يقوم عمل منظمة خيرية غير حكومية في اسبانيا لمساعدة اللاجئين الذين وصلو الى إسبانيا و حل مشاكلهم و الدفاع عنهم و يأمل أن تتوسع المنظمة لليونان و جميع أنحاء أوروبا لمساعدة اللاجئين قدر المستطاع.
للاستماع للتفاصيل في الرابط التالي:


Ahmed Ayash from Shabab Radio Spain met with a very kind and special guest, Mohammed Karroum, in San Sebastian.  Originally from Banias, Syria, he’s been living in Spain since 1970.
In the beginning of 2016, Mohammad Karroum traveled to Greece to help and support refugees there. He visited Samos Island and several camps in Greece to have a look at the problems and difficulties refugees are facing and to experience first-hand how organizations are treating the newly arriving people. 
Our guest says, he felt sad about the suffering of refugees in general and especially Syrians. That was the point when Mohammed Karroum decided to found a non-governmental organization in Spain to help refugees who arrived in Spain to find new solutions for their problems and defend their rights. He hopes to expand the organization to Greece and across Europe to help refugees in Europe as much as possible.

Interview with Mohammed Karroum - a Syrian in Spain helping newly arriving refugees

Shabab Radio is the 1st cross-cultural web radio station with informative and entertaining programs in Arabic, Farsi, English and Greek, broadcasting from Athens, Greece. 

We are a small international team of locals & new locals and believe that it's time to learn more about each other through giving refugees, volunteers and persons involved in the refugee crisis a voice. 

We want to talk with each other instead of just talking about each other and build new, necessary bridges through music, culture, information, people. 

We are all Shabab! 

Shabab Radio is just starting off and will be on air with continuous programs soon on www.shababradio.net with live stream & re-playable and downloadable podcasts. 

Meanwhile, visit the website for the latest interviews, news and some real good music!

We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas! Feel free to get in touch anytime at contact@shababradio.net (we speak your language). :)

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