Asylum seekers in Austria are helping the poor and homeless in Vienna by working as volunteers for the "Wiener Tafel" project, the oldest food bank in the country.
The "Wiener Tafel" (Vienna's Table) , an NGO in Vienna, Austria, saves up to three tons of foodstuffs a day from being thrown in the garbage and supplies 19,000 people affected by poverty in 117 social facilities in the greater Vienna area. The food donations come from trade, industry and agriculture. Approximately 400 volunteers then take the food to the poorest people in women's shelters, mother-child dormitories, shelters for the homeless and refugee centers.
Some of the volunteers are asylum seekers themselves. ANSA spoke with two of them: Rozh Ali, an asylum seeker from Iraq and Ali Majid Abdul Razzaq Al Khalid, also an asylum seeker from Iraq."I have found 'Wiener Tafel' very good because all kinds of people are here to help out. There are no differences between us, Arabs, Europeans, Muslims, or Christians," said Rozh Ali.
The two volunteers go to the industrial district of Vienna to get the donated food and then distribute it to the needy, the UNHCR reports.
Help for everybody
"We are happy to use our time for good," said Ali, 32, who worked as a vet in Diyala, eastern Iraq. "There are poor refugees, but also poor Austrians who live on the street. This was a shock to us when we came here, to see poor people in Europe, in a supposedly rich land."
Together with Rozh, 39, a former marketing manager in Baghdad, they try to help by volunteering with the food bank as they await for their asylum request to be processed. Both arrived in Austria in 2015, although they traveled separately. They were fleeing sectarian violence in Iraq.
"I come to work here every day," says Rozh. "Wiener Tafel is like family to me."
A win-win situation
"It's a win-win-win situation," explained Karl-Anton Goertz, one of the directors of Wiener Tafel, to UNHCR. "Nature wins, the food industry economizes on waste disposal and the poor benefit."
Refugees who volunteer for the food bank have the opportunity to help out, make progress with the language and participate in cooking workshops.
"Nobody is starving in Austria," said Karl-Anton. "But poverty is not being able to take part fully in life, to choose what you would like to eat. We are trying not only to promote better nutrition but also to give poor people more choice."
A video about the project is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHJyqTMhx0E)