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Petition: Let's welcome refugees into our homes


The Avaaz campaign team write:

Dear friends,

I cannot read about one more refugee family drowning in the ocean at Europe's doors -- not one single more mother losing her kids to hunger, or one more tiny child watching his parents die at sea. My heart is broken, and as long as I watch the news, I can't stop crying.

But yesterday, a ray of hope came -- after Iceland refused to take in more than a pitiful 50 refugees, one author asked her Facebook followers to offer to host a refugee family. A shocking 10,000 people responded opening the doors to their homes.

This is exactly how we rise to this moment in history. We say to our leaders, we reject your politics of xenophobia and we say to our brothers and sisters, Welcome Home.

We can lead our leaders, who are putting up fences and pulling up drawbridges. Show them our hearts and doors, all over the world, are open to those who need safe haven.

But the numbers need to be truly massive -- to force EU governments to stop making excuses, we need every Avaaz member to sign and then share the pledge everywhere, on Facebook, Twitter, via email, wherever you can think -- Click below to sign the Welcome Home pledge and share it:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/welcome_home_3_7/?bKEUnbb&v=64317

Whether we live in Italy at the frontlines of the crisis or a half a world away, this is our shared human emergency to solve.

And whether or not we are able to actually house a refugee in our homes, we can pledge to welcome them in our countries and communities. If enough of us pledge, this simple act of human solidarity could change the entire global dialogue about the refugee crisis -- which right now is fueled by fear and xenophobia.

What if instead we talked about what is really happening to these families? They are moms, dads, daughters and sons just like ours who are running for their lives from the horrors of the world's most terrible wars --from Syria to Afghanistan. And they're knocking on our door, pleading for our compassion.

Until now, most leaders are pushing the door closed, shouting at each other like children that it's not their problem. But we could be at a tipping point...

Thousands upon thousands of ordinary citizens, along with a handful of mayors, are rejecting out of hand the closed-door policies national leaders are pushing for, and choosing to act from the truest place of love. One woman writes:

"I'm a single mother with a six-year-old son... We can take a child in need. I'm a teacher and would teach the child to speak, read and write Icelandic and adjust to Icelandic society. We have clothes, a bed, toys and everything a child needs. I would of course pay for the airplane ticket."

Let's stand with every volunteer like her and through our solidarity, will a humane 21st century refugee policy into existence.

Avaaz members have been acting to help refugees since the crisis started -- more than 1600 of us have signed up to volunteer, we raised and gave away 500,000 USD to a crucial rescue mission in the Mediterranean, we ran an aid mission to the Greek islands -- and lobbied fiercely until Europe signed an initial deal to address the crisis. But the magnitude of what is happening demands of us even more -- and we can rise to the need together. Let's raise history's loudest ever "Welcome Home" cry now.

With hope,

Mia, Mais, Alice, Luis, Ricken, Wissam, Sobaika and the whole Avaaz team

Sign the petition here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/welcome_home_3_7/?bKEUnbb&v=64317

See also: 10,000 Icelanders offer to house Syrian refugees after author's call (The Telegraph)
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/iceland/11835537/10000-Icelanders-offer-to-house-Syrian-refugees-after-authors-call.html

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