Nov 16
17
KPBSD students connect with Syrian refugee crisis #videoconference
KPBSD students across the Kenai listen and learn firsthand about the Syrian refugee crisis, via a videoconferencing presentation from Seward, Alaska, USA.
Teresa Gray, a retired paramedic, spent several weeks volunteering in Lesvos, Greece, greeting and serving refugees from Syria, offering medical aid, hugs, and suckers, alongside volunteers from other countries.
At a camp on the beach, where she spent three weeks, she said, “The whole point is to get them at least fed, and dry, and warm, and a smile on their face. They didn’t spend long at this temporary camp. … In the 21 days I was on Lesvos, 60,000 people came in those 21 days. Four hundred people drowned, trying to make it.”
That’s only the beginning of a powerful hour, with Gray’s photos, recounting of facts, and her sobering, heart-wrenching experience.
Students from Kenai Central High School, Kenai Middle School, Seward Middle School, Soldotna High School, Soldotna Prep, and countless others logged in to watch live through the videoconference (VTC) link. KPBSD students in the Polycom Certification Practicum helped facilitate the VTC.