“We are one now; Karim’s children are ours too”, Maria Patsikou, retired teacher, mother of three

A family consisted of seven members, with different religion and language, but full of love, understanding and acceptance.

Maria, Vasilis, Karim, Hanan and the six-year-old Jana, the four-year-old Ahmad and little Lana, just two years old, are a newly established family, different, but yet so similar to the others. Besides, a family does not consist only of people who are relatives by blood, but of those who are connected by love, acceptance and respect for the others.

Driven by love and respect, Maria and Vasilis, retired teachers, opened their heart and their home to Karim’s family from Syria. As Maria states, “the decision was not made lighthearted …”, but came as a result of thought and experience acquired by her during her involvement to the Panpeiraiki Initiative for the refugees; “I saw the plight of these people very closely and I decided to host a family in my home”.

Karim also, took the decision to accept Maria’s offer for hosting his family after thorough consideration and this is why he was afraid too. His hesitant and worries derived from the different language, customs and religion – “…how will we communicate? What is like to be hosted by people who are strange to you …”, but as he says now “… we are so well! I will never forget what Maria and Vasilis did for us “.

“They made me feel vivid again; I felt as a mother once again because the kids are so young and they are in my arms all the time”, Maria says. Having “new kids” in her arms, Maria felt obliged to write the 6-year-old Jana to school. Today, Jana has already learnt to speak Greek and communicate with Maria and Vasilis! According to Maria, education has no boundaries; education is not related to language and it is an inalienable human right. It is indeed a right of all children – the children who “belong to the world not to us“.

Maria, Vasilis, Karim, Hanan and the three kids, cook and eat together, go out, discuss, having developed their own language, and enjoy the children’s liveliness who every day invent new games in order to play with everyone – not only with Maria but even with the wonderful grandma Alexandra.

Today, all of them think of the day that the next journey will begin, the one of Karim’s family to Romania which is the country of their relocation. There, they will have the opportunity to start their life again, aiming at a more secure present as well as future, far away from the war. Karim and Hanan already are thinking of the time when they will be able to open their new home and welcome Maria and Vasilis, who promise to visit them! Until then however, in a small neighborhood of Piraeus, there is a home full of warmth, that any visitor can feel.

Let us introduce the members of this family via the #WeAreFamily project, here.

*The Hosting Scheme Project Home for Hope is implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of UNHCR GREECE and EU funding.