The beneficiaries of the Open Accommodation Center, A Step Forward of MdM-Greece had the opportunity to visit the gallery The Holy Art Athens.
Together with a team from MdM-Greece, the women toured the Art on Loop exhibition and admired the artists’ digital works. One of the beneficiaries from Somalia was left dumbfounded, absorbed, looking at the digital work Into the sea. “It’s the sea, do you like it?” we asked her, as we saw her bursting into tears.
It was November 22 when she got on a boat, a day she will never forget. She was so scared, “I thought I wouldn’t survive,” she says, as she tells us how she left Turkey in an inflatable boat, bound for Lesvos. “I was terrified, there were lots of waves, water was coming into the boat, I’ll never be able to forget it,” she says in a shaky voice, crying.
Moreover, upon arriving on Lesvos and as the days passed, not believing she had made it out alive, something happened that made her smile again. At the RIC she met her partner, “the nicest man”, as she tells us, who loves her, takes care of her, calms her down. He is now in a RIC in Athens, they continue to go out and talk about their future. What they want is to get back on their feet and go to Germany where friends are waiting for them.
“Thank you so much for being by my side, for helping me to stand on my feet again, to be able to win my life again”, he says, and the tears of sadness and fear are now tears of joy, relief and hope for tomorrow. We leave the exhibition with a big hug, a tight one, the kind that redeems you, and a big smile.
The MdM-Greece Open Accommodation Center, A Step Forward reopened on July 23 after its two-month renovation.
