Letters of hope are building a bridge between the displaced people of one generation and those of the next.
CARE, the Atlanta-based international relief organization, has encouraged a group of former World War II refugees, now living in the United States, to send encouragement to Syrian refugee children living in Jordan.
“I‘m writing to share my story with you to let you know that, no matter how bad things may seem, there are good people in this world who can make everything better.”
The words came from Gunter Nitsch, 78, whose life was swallowed up by war when he was 8 years old.
He wrote to an 8-year-old Syrian boy named Zaher, living in an apartment in Jordan. When Zaher opened the package that Nitsch sent, and saw the photo of the gray-haired Chicago resident, he remarked, “He reminds me of my grandfather!”
You can see Nitsch's letter here, and a video, captured by videographers in Jordan and the U.S., showing the stories of other letter-writers, and other recipients, here.
Nitsch told Zaher about growing up in Prussia and trying to hide from the Russians when they swept over in 1945. His mother was put into forced labor and he went into the woods to gather nettles, berries, acorns and wild mushrooms and sometimes stole potatoes to stay alive.
The family was moved to Berlin and escaped across the wall to West Berlin where they lived in a refugee camp in a former ammunition dump.
Nitsch wrote about receiving their first CARE package there, sponsored by a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania. “I was sure that fruit salad was the kind of food the angels ate in heaven.”
Nitsch created his own package for Zaher, including a chocolate bar, a stuffed animal and paper airplanes that he had folded.
The letter-writing initiative is intended to create a connection between the children of the Syrian crisis and those who were children during the crisis so many years ago. Michelle Nunn, CEO and president of CARE, said she was in Jordan last fall, and the families there told her that, as their plight drags into its fifth year, they worry about being forgotten.
“The signal that we do care is important,” she said. “We want to inspire people to think about their own capacity for action.”
The initiative is especially important in Georgia, where Gov. Nathan Deal has tried to bar Syrian refugees from resettling here, before rescinding that order.
Those who want to write their own letters can do so on the CARE website here.
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