When the Syrian refugee crisis broke out, the topic was big, complex and confusing for Giselle Gonzales.

The 21-year-old had been following the story in the news but admits she was not really invested and never posted anything on social media because there was just so much to the issue.

So when Gonzales, who grew up in Redmond, got the opportunity to break down the headlines and stereotypes being portrayed in the media, she took it.

RAISING AWARENESS

The 2012 Eastlake High School graduate — who also took Running Start through Bellevue College — was invited to join a research team for The Syrian Circle.

Her role for the initiative, which focuses on raising awareness of the crisis and the refugees, was to share the refugees’, locals’ and volunteers’ stories.

“Every statistic and every number is a person with a face and a name and a story,” Gonzales said.

In addition, the organization’s website states that they focus on prayer.

“You don’t have to be an expert on world issues to pray about them,” the site states. “What is important is that you come before God with an open heart that is sincere and willing to fully engage.”

The website also has a virtual prayer wall on which people can post their prayers for the Syrian people and other refugees.

With The Syrian Circle, Gonzales was in Europe from Feb. 7 to March 3. She traveled from Greece to Germany — stopping in Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria along the way.

While there, Gonzales and the rest of the research team — an older couple and an Egyptian Arabic speaker who served as a translator — scheduled meetings with local leaders, toured refugee camps and worked to document the origin stories of the refugees.

A CHAOTIC JOURNEY

As Gonzales and the rest of the Syrian Circle team traveled through central Europe toward Germany, they witnessed firsthand the chaos the refugees faced on a daily basis. Oftentimes, she said, whenever they arrived in a new location, the borders around that country would become closed to refugees right before or right after their arrival.

Gonzales said people would show her their passports and other documents showing that they were Syrian. They couldn’t understand why they weren’t being let into the various countries they were trying to travel through toward Germany, she said.

In addition, there were even times while in the Balkans that they actually had to sneak into refugee camps.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE HEADLINES

In her role, Gonzales interviewed people, learned their stories and then took their portraits. She then posted these portraits along with a few paragraphs about the featured individual or individuals on The Syrian Circle’s Facebook page. She said she got her inspiration from Humans of New York, a website and Facebook page that features everyday people in New York and a bit of their personal stories.

During her time in the camps, Gonzales said she met people of various backgrounds. She recalled meeting a couple in which the husband was a fashion designer — who was even able to point out clothing on others in the camp that he had designed — and the wife was a banker.

Gonzales noted that a common theme she found in her encounters came from parents. She said they mostly did not care what happened to them and their only concerns were for their children: how sorry they were they had to live through this and the worries they had for their children’s futures.

In addition, Gonzales said they also spoke with police, border guards, humanitarian groups and religion groups who were doing what they could to help people.

“They were just people, just like you and I,” she said.

CHANGING THE CONVERSATION

Meeting people in the camps gave Gonzales the opportunity to move beyond the stereotypes she had been seeing in the media and has changed the way she views the refugee situation.

She noted that many media outlets have discussed the supposedly dangerous young refugee men, which she admitted was something on her mind before her trip.

“I was honestly pretty nervous at first,” Gonzales said.

But once she arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos, she said everyone treated her very politely and respectfully.

During her travels, Gonzales met two young men who were about her age and still in school. She said when she talked to them, the two men expressed their concerns about their future and how they just wanted to complete their education.

“They were just so different from (how the media had been portraying them),” Gonzales said.

The portraits and stories she posted on Facebook reach between 2,000 and 6,000 people. Gonzales said people have connected with her and have shared her posts with others in their communities.

She also noted the power of a story and how it can shift how people think and talk about any given topic. Gonzales said she has even noticed this among her own group of friends.

GETTING THEIR STORIES TOLD

With her blonde hair and blue eyes, Gonzales was initially wary of how she — a young Western woman — would be received by people at the camps.

She also admitted to being hesitant to take photos in the camps. She recalls being in a camp in Serbia and watching busloads of 50-100 people arrive at a time.

“This camp was getting flooded with people,” she said.

Gonzales said she stood there with a boy of about 13 and tried to figure out how to take pictures of people who were clearly suffering. In the end, in that situation, she gave the camera to the boy and taught him how to use it and take photos.

“He had so much more of a right (to take pictures),” Gonzales said.

After meeting and becoming friends with her, the boy wanted to introduce Gonzales to his family. She said he brought her into a large tent where his family and other refugees were staying. The two of them had to walk down a long aisle with beds and people on each side and as they did so, Gonzales said people would turn their heads to look — likening it to a scene out of a movie. At first, she thought it was because she was invading their privacy, but soon she realized it was the opposite: people wanted her to take their pictures.

One father even placed his young son right in front of Gonzales as she walked down the aisle. The boy was holding a single cracker in his hand and Gonzales said the father asked her to take his son’s photo to let people know that one cracker was all he had eaten in three days.

Gonzales acknowledged that while the people she met were willing to have their pictures taken and stories shared with the world, it was still not an easy process.

“There’s so much emotion with leaving all of what you have,” she said. “It can be really frustrating.”

This led Gonzales to again realize the power of the story because raising a fist can only do so much. Raising your voice, she said, can cause a dramatic shift in how people think.

“When all you have is taken away from you, telling your story is like an act of defiance,” she said.

#NOTFORGOTTEN

To anyone who may be nervous about refugees coming to the United States, Gonzales encouraged them to consider meeting the individuals and asking them for their stories.

“That’s the best antidote to fear,” she said.

In addition to assuaging people’s possible fears, this can also ensure the refugees that they have not been forgotten — a common sentiment Gonzales encountered in the camps. She recalled a pair of sisters from Yemen who had recently lost their parents. Gonzales said the two considered just going out into the woods and hiding because they felt nobody cared about them or wanted them.

Upon returning from her travels, this stayed on her mind so Gonzales tried to think of a way to address this.

The idea she came with was a letter-writing campaign.

Gonzales said now through the end of the month, people can write letters of encouragement to refugee individuals and families in Europe to let them know people are still thinking about them. More information and printable card templates can be found at tinyurl.com/jz73afl.

Letters can be sent by mail to Overlake Christian Church, ATTN: Giselle Gonzales, 9900 Willows Dr., Redmond, WA. 98052 or by email at giselle.gonzales7@gmail.com, using the subject line “#NotForgotten.”

Gonzales said the Syrian Circle is teaming up with two teams from Redmond who will travel to the camps in May and June to support the efforts in Europe to deliver the letters during their trips.

“The goal is to get a couple thousand (letters) by the end of the month,” she said.