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Syrian Refugees Help Germans For Free

BERLIN – Making their way from Syria to Berlin, a couple of Syrian refugee young men are paying back to their adopted city by repairing light fixtures, tutoring high school students in mathematics, teaching guitar lessons and teaching Arabic to some Germans.

“We just wanted to take part in this city,” Samir al-Hajjar said in an interview with Vocativ on Friday, March 4.

“We’re so grateful to be here.”

Al-Hajjar and Nafee Kurdi are two Syrian engineering students who fled war in their home country, making their way to Germany with refugees last fall.

Waiting for their official asylum papers, the duo wanted to fight boredom by offering help to their new adopted city as a thank you message for accepting them.

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It all started last week when al-Hajjar posted a solicitation to Free Your Stuff Berlin, a Facebook group with nearly 65,000 members.

Identifying himself and Kurdi as Syrian refugees, he said: “Because our papers will take a lot of time and they won’t let us work, we have a lot of free time… We are really ready to volunteer our time to give something back to this beautiful city that gave us another sunshiny day of safe[ty] and freedom.”

“So if you’re looking for any kind of help…we’ll surely be there,” al-Hajjar’s post continued.

They were showered with more than 400 messages from people asking for their help, offering them a tour in the city, or even asking to add them as Facebook friends.

“Some Berliners wanted our help and others wanted to help us,” said Kurdi.

“People started asking us to dinner, to parties or out to the bars. We were kind of surprised.”

Within a few days, they managed to give language lessons, clear basements and discover the city in the best way possible.

In a recent outing with a musician ended with al-Hajjar and Kurdi at a rave in the middle of a forest.

An invite to help a couple repair a light fixture at their home turned into a late-night jam session where the Syrian refugees strummed renditions of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Once their asylum applications are approved, both said they want to continue studying engineering in Germany.