13/06/2020
Dear M,
You came to our school a child, shy and afraid. You were 12 and had that curious way of fixing your scarf behind your ears.
You reluctantly obeyed the orders of your older brother when he would tell you to go back to camp immediately after lunch. You couldn’t join the fitness and breakdance classes that you loved so much. You hung your head and started towards the exit. You would even reassure us. As if it was us who needed to be reassured.
You lived in the refugee camp of Samos, Greece, where 7,000 Afghans, Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Congolese live without shelter, without bathrooms, without doctors. Without human rights. Half of them are women and children.
You could speak only Farsi when you came to us, but in less than a year you climbed all our levels of English up to the most advanced. Along this path you have encountered many obstacles. You have failed a few tests; you cried until you lost your breath, you said, “I can’t do it! What’s wrong with me? I won’t come back to school!”
Yet, you came back. You studied more than before, you became a class representative, a trusted assistant to the photography teacher, and you prepared lessons that you conducted alone for the other students. But above all, you learned to make friends. You learned to build real relationships, to lift up your head, to fight for your rights. You made your family understand that you wanted to stay at school all day, that you were free to choose your classes. You empowered yourself to do so. To choose whether to wear a scarf or not. And that’s how you became a point of reference for the other girls, a role model, an example.
Thank you, M. As you fought for your personal battles, you never stopped flooding Mazí, our school, with your cheerfulness and your irreverent questions. In doing so, you taught us to appreciate our privileges and our freedom.
In the end, not only did you participate in the fitness and breakdance lessons but you performed with your classmates in front of a huge audience on “International Refugee Day”. Your family was in the audience to cheer for you, all proud of the great young woman you had become.
Your story, M, is the story of many girls who, like you, entered the door of Mazì in fear, traumatised, without the tools to answer the incredible difficulties to which your young lives have been subjected. Your story, M, is the story of all those little girls that we have seen blooming, growing up to respond head-on and courageously to abuse and injustice. All those girls that we have seen claiming their right to happiness. It’s girls like you that make sense of our commitment as teachers and volunteers.
You arrived in Samos one night in October on a crumpled rubber dinghy, in your bones the frost of the sea and the terror of drowning. You left this island a year and three months later. How many times did you rush to the port to wave to your friends on the ferry that would take them to Athens or Thessaloniki? How many times did your heart break, in your head the usual, deafening questions, “When will it be my turn? Will I ever leave this hell?” You left one year and three months later, a cold December day. They moved you to another camp, one more dignified perhaps, but in any case not the place where a child should grow up.
Dear M, your road to freedom is still long, but in the meantime never forget what you learned here with us in Mazì.
You are important. You matter. You are worth it, even when you don’t feel that way. Your life is worth it. Your dreams are worth it, your fears and hopes are worth it. Your freedom is worth it. Silence your detractors. Never doubt yourself. You are important. And the next time you feel like doing what you love is impossible, think back to when you were just a child who was forbidden to do breakdance and fitness. Remember how you challenged everything and everyone to assert your rights. You are important, never forget it. We certainly won’t.
With love,
- Still I Rise
This is what we do as Still I Rise. We restore the human rights of boys and girls like M. We open schools in the most complicated places in the world. We offer a future to children in need. Like M in Mazì, the children of war can reclaim their childhoods in our schools.
If you can, please donate to our cause. Your contribution gives life to our schools in Greece, Turkey, Syria and Kenya. We welcome refugee and forgotten children and give them high-level education, nutrition, protection, medical and legal assistance, and love.
Your contribution is fundamental and allows us to keep our values high. Still I Rise is a completely independent organisation. We reject institutional funds and accept no compromises. We always operate in the best interest of the people we serve. We are free from the business logic of international humanitarian aid.
And above all, we are transparent. In 2019, we donated 97% of the funds we raised to our projects in the field and less than 3% to the administration. This is an exemplary ratio that very few international organisations can claim. We are very proud of it.
Donate to Still I Rise. It may be a small contribution for you, but for us and for the children we serve it can make a difference. Help us to help them:
https://www.stillirisengo.org/en/support-us/
PayPal: paypal.me/stilliriseonlusIT
Tax number: 91015070633
Changing the world, one child at a time. Are you with us?
