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

11 January 2019

Migrants and Refugees


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.


1 / 4





Master baker Björn Wiese (wearing cap) teaches Mohamad Hamza Alemam how to bake at the Backwerkstatt bakery in Eberswalde, eastern Germany.
© UNHCR/Gordon Welters


♦ Receive daily updates directly in your inbox - Subscribe here to a topic.
♦ Download the UN News app for your iOS or Android devices.

FROM THE FIELD|MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES




https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1030292
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode