Marcell’s visit to the Netherlands – 28-31 October 2014

Standing at the arrivals at the airport I am looking around holding a paper in my hand with ‘MARCELL’ written on it. Making sure the sign is visible, I am getting impatient – it takes more than forty-five minutes already and I don’t know what this Marcell looks like. Suddenly I almost get hit by a trolly with three suit cases on top, and a woman behind it calling: ‘Are you Irma? Than I am supposed to go with you!’, and then, slightly grumpy: ‘I need food’. Meet Marcell Shehwaro, a thirty-year old blogger and activist from Aleppo, the biggest city in Syria. She is visiting the Netherlands as a part of her trip to different European cities – the next stops are Brussels and Berlin. Her goal is to raise awareness about the wrong display of reality here in Europe – the message we receive (mainly through media) does not represent the true situation in Syria.

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Bakkie met een Irakkie!

By Coen Veerman and Pim Gerritsen  [See below for the images and videos of the road trip]

In a bright orange minivan we travelled more than 800 km through different cities and places in the Netherlands to drink a Bakkie met een Irakkie (a cup of coffee with an Iraqi). We invited people passing by to have a cup of coffee with our guests. Our goal? There’s a lot of attention for Iraq and the current war, the focus lies on the extreme violence and brutality. Read more

Bakkie met een Irakkie

Maandag 13 en dinsdag 14 oktober toeren twee Iraakse ambassadeurs van vrede in een fel oranje camperbusje door Nederland op zoek naar andere maatschappelijk betrokken activisten. Onder de titel ‘Een bakkie met een Irakkie’ nodigt vredesorganisatie PAX iedereen uit om onder het genot van een bakkie koffie in gesprek te gaan met beide Irakese vredesactivisten. Read more