Diary of Francesca – 4
Me and Murim
Me, Murim and her fear in a waiting room
I pick her up in the hotel she has been living in for a few days, after having slept for many long nights on the streets, without shelter, with her son, without a place to stay
Today is suffocatingly hot, I keep sweating
She has a fur instead
In my broken Arabic, walking by cars and construction sites, I try to laugh with her at this difference, to break the ice
Diary of Francesca – 3
Yesterday it was my birthday
And I spent it as a Colomba volunteer.
I woke up happy, here in Athens
Happy to be here, happy to be part of a peace to be built every day.
The other volunteers showered me with attention, they cooked spaghetti “cozze e pecorino”!
And some little ice-creams appeared, as my birthday cake.
I struggle, however, to describe the beauty of our afternoon
Diary of Francesca – 2
A painting workshop has become a canvas on which to weave relationships and trust. A chance,
Time to share,
A small breathing window in a daily life full of problems to solve.
Safiya is 24, her daughter Nawal, 4.
We go pick them up at the place they are staying, take them with us to where the workshop will be held and walk in together, into a big, decorated room.
Diary of Francesca – 1
How do you picture a refugee camp?
Can you imagine it?
This was what I kept asking myself before leaving, and my head could not produce any concrete image.
I can’t do it even now, standing in front of it The barbed wire
The tall walls Why though?
“Theoretically” it’s not a prison
Practically it is
This Report was drafted by the Camp Network Group, a network of organizations and solidary individuals—which also includes Operazione Colomba—that monitors the conditions of people on the move in Athens and in the camps belonging to the city.
OPERAZIONE COLOMBA
