Horse Therapy! It is normally used with disabled kids and their families. But a local ranch family in Austria has been trained in this very noble therapy and decided to extend the program to immigrant neighbors who are finding their way in a new, strange country. What a very loving offer with no cost to the families. Two families who are being helped arrived in Austria seven months ago, one from Syria and the other from Afghanistan. They were placed in the same house for asylum seekers. They fled their homelands and, well, everything! And they entered a very different world! Their children quickly picked up German in their new schools so they are often the translators for the grownups. It would be hard for us to imagine the fears, stresses and the extremes of all of these changes!
But then someone, like Hannes and Angelika, the ranchers, come along and love on these families in such a unique way! The kids are invited for afternoons of caring for ponies and riding them. This is being done to help these children who are traumatized, or who have anxiety as newcomers into Austria. This culture is VERY different from their home lands and the transition can be difficult. This opportunity with the ponies has been very successful in smoothing the way and dealing with the pain of fleeing their lands. (Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Romania, others) Also, people who would not be "friends" normally, become friends out of need for one another. Some fled because they were Muslim of one stripe or another, and others fled because they were Christians being persecuted.. Here, they find friendships in unlikely places! And with unlikely people!
Horse Therapy! It is normally used with disabled kids and their families. But a local ranch family in Austria has been trained in this very noble therapy and decided to extend the program to immigrant neighbors who are finding their way in a new, strange country. What a very loving offer with no cost to the families.
Two families who are being helped arrived in Austria seven months ago, one from Syria and the other from Afghanistan. They were placed in the same house for asylum seekers. They fled their homelands and, well, everything! And they entered a very different world! Their children quickly picked up German in their new schools so they are often the translators for the grownups. It would be hard for us to imagine the fears, stresses and the extremes of all of these changes!
But then someone, like Hannes and Angelika, the ranchers, come along and love on these families in such a unique way! The kids are invited for afternoons of caring for ponies and riding them. This is being done to help these children who are traumatized, or who have anxiety as newcomers into Austria. This culture is VERY different from their home lands and the transition can be difficult. This opportunity with the ponies has been very successful in smoothing the way and dealing with the pain of fleeing their lands. (Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Romania, others) Also, people who would not be "friends" normally, become friends out of need for one another. Some fled because they were Muslim of one stripe or another, and others fled because they were Christians being persecuted.. Here, they find friendships in unlikely places! And with unlikely people!