Tom is at it again putting together a new power point about the Oasis. He asked all of us on the team to help by supplying him with feedback of what refugees have said to us about the Oasis, for example:
"This place should be called the place of love and friendship!"
I immediately thought of the thank you note we received last fall from an Armenian couple, who are now settled in Austria:
“We will never forget how you gave us a second chance at life. The Oasis team didn't only help us with practical things, like clothing and coffee, but, also, by giving us hope through prayer. That was the most important thing. The Oasis is like water in the desert, and it quenched our thirst.”
It reminded me that we are not forgotten. People move through the Oasis so quickly, and sometimes we are the ones who forget once refugees are gone from our sight and we’re focusing on the new arrivals. But as Merlude, a woman from Kosovo, tells me with a big smile every time that I bump into her on the train or on the street, “I will never forget you and the Oasis and the way you helped my family.”
I think we have no idea of the impact we have.
Carol T. Halm
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