FROM THE FIELD: How the smell of fresh bread transformed one refugee life

January 14, 2019 by United Nations Leave a Comment

Syrian refugee Mohamad Hamza Alemam (left) is receiving baking lessons from Master baker Björn Wiese (wearing cap), at the Backwerkstatt Bakery in Eberswalde, eastern Germany. 4 December 2018.

© UNHCR/Gordon Welters Syrian refugee Mohamad Hamza Alemam (left) is receiving baking lessons from Master baker Björn Wiese (wearing cap), at the Backwerkstatt Bakery in Eberswalde, eastern Germany. 4 December 2018.

This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Who would imagine that the smell of fresh bread wafting through a bakery could change the course of a young Syrian refugee’s life? But that is pretty much what happened to Mohamad Hamza Alemam, when the 23-year-old Syrian refugee sheltering in Germany, walked through the door of Privatbäckerei Wiese bäckerei. Initially he started working there to learn German. But over time as his language skills improved, he began an official assistant apprenticeship, mastering the basics of breadmaking and how to run the shop. “When I go back to Syria one day, I hope to take a little bit of this German culture, this German bread, with me”, he says. Read more here about Mohamad, and bakery owner Björn Wiese, who has taken on ten refugees and asylum-seekers.

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