Are You Syrious? (AYS)

Qui sommes-nous

The volunteer-run NGO Are You Syrious? (AYS) started in 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia, as refugees and migrants were traveling through the Balkans on their way to countries such as France and Germany. The organisation currently operates in a number of European countries, including Greece and France, where it provides support to refugees through donations and volunteers.

The organization provides:
• Education support for children and adults; an integration center, including the AYS Free Shop where refugees can choose the goods they need;
• Trusted international refugee news via the AYS Daily Digest;
• Employment assistance for finding a job and negotiating fair conditions and pay; and
• Research and advocacy on asylum in Croatia, including border pushbacks.

Activities:
• After seeing the need for Croatian language lessons, AYS sought out experts, offering refugees access to a world-class program with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb.
• AYS collaborated with the Center for Peace Studies, a highly-regarded human rights NGO (and UUSC partner) to produce reports documenting illegal border pushbacks and the systematic denial of asylum to Dublin deportees.
• In Serbia´s capital Belgrade it has set up a mobile kitchen (now operated by the initiative Hot Food Idomeni), and is working on preparing mobile showers, while further away, in Syria, it has supported the rebuilding of a large tent camp that had previously been destroyed.
• AYS coordinates with laypeople and experienced journalists from around the world to create the Daily Digest, a crucial resource for refugees and those working on the front lines of human rights advocacy: In addition to its activities on the field, AYS does an important work of documenting the humanitarian crisis, sourcing and publishing information about support initiatives active in various countries, and denouncing irregularities and violations of human rights along the refugee routes. For this purpose it has been producing daily news-digests since very early on, bringing together "important information for volunteers and refugees from all over the route". The information is gathered through a network of volunteers and contacts on the field and many international media and large organisations consider the NGO a reliable source of information.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.