Mülteci Olmak / Being a Refugee…

Macaristan'da mültecilelerle ilgili AGH projesine gönderdiğimiz  gönüllümüz Şule Güre'nin kaleminden Bicske'deki mülteci kampındaki çalışmalara dair gözlemlerini okuyabilirsiniz. Şule'nin gözünden daha önce projesi ile ilgili bir yazı yayınlamıştık. Her AGH projesi  bir rüya gibi olamıyor maalesef; bazen gönüllü projenin konusuna çok motivedir ama projedeki faaliyetler kağıtta yazdığı gibi değildir, bazen kurum çok motivedir ama gönüllünün planları farklıdır...Şule'nin hikayeleri bu noktada bizim için değerli...mülteciler gibi teması biraz daha zor olan bir konuda bazen faaliyetsizliklerin ve zorlukların içinde yeniden bir dünya yaratmak...Aslında bu yazı AGH'de gül bahçesinin vaad edilmediğinin hikayesi gibi...

I want to share the second part of my EVS experiences where take place in refugee integration camp in Bicske. I came here a month ago, and to be honest, after spending time in Budapest, this city seems so boring, located in countryside.  On the other hand, after Budapest, here is for more relaxing and is good place for those who like walking in the nature.

If we come to our voluntary work, I chose this project due to my previous voluntary work with refugees in Istanbul/Turkey, but unfortunately, at the beginning in Bicske, I felt disappointed. I thought that this part would be so interesting for me because I really want to specialize on refugee camp; asylum issues in the future.  But when we came here, we saw that nothing was not really planned for the volunteers in Bicske.

First step was not easy and we started from the zero level. We didn’t have contact with refugees and also they didn’t know about us too. They had question in their mind about our presence in the camp: “What we are doing here or we are also new social workers?” For this reason, with brilliant idea came from the German volunteer and we prepared a poster, telling about us and what kind of activities we offer. After that, finally we got our activity room through the help one social worker who is responsible for the social activities for refugees. We tried to make it friendly for the children. We offered painting, and playing group games there. Generally the girls started to come to the activity room and most of them are very talented. But unfortunately, there is no enough drawing tools and facility to improve their skills in the camp. Even I heard from them that they had more fun when they were in reception center in Debrecen rather than this integration camp. With the help of that social worker, we organized a sport activity for adults too. It was volleyball competition and refugees played against the male volunteers. Sure, refugees won the competition! Refugees are really good at any kind of sport!

Step by step, we started to offer other activities with the help of the two Belgian interns in the camp. We have just started to organize English lessons for 2 days. Even though the refugees seem to be interested in learning English, the attendants remain less than we expected. Before organizing the English lessons,  talked with teachers who teach Hungarian language in the camp and we got feedbacks from them to make structure for our English lessons. Because none of us, has teaching experience and also some of the refugees are illiterate. So we had to plan the English lessons accordingly their needs. We will continue the English lessons, and playing kids for this week as well.

Beside voluntary work, I want to share my feelings a little bit. Even though I had strong bonds with refugees and their stories when I was in Turkey, I haven’t had this opportunity here yet. But despite my lack of communication with them, I can feel the human stories, how they struggle, how most of them are full of hopes, how the importance of religion, the relation between men and women, especially in the Afghan culture, (the Afghan refugees make up the majority in the camp). At the same time this voluntarily work gave me a chance to read more deeply about the refugees’ needs in Hungary, and to understand the shortcomings of the integration politics here.

I hope during my voluntary service, I will come up with new ideas to be helpful refugees even there is no long project here..and I hope after this integration camp, all refugees find their ways well to make their lives better in Hungary…

05.03.2013, Bicske, Şule

Please enjoy the pictures!

kaynak: http://budapestevs.blog.com/2013/03/05/176/