“Adiq sadak” – you are my friend. This was the most popular sentence among the children attending the School of Peace in Koufinou, which gathered children from this refugee camp and the neighbouring one in Limnes, Cyprus. Approximately 600 refugees live in these two camps, including many minors, some of whom have been here for several years. Most are Syrian, yet there are also Afghans, Sudanese, Nigerians, and many more. Some of these children have started going to school, learning Greek and English.
During the summer, temperatures in these places get very high, sometimes over 40°C. In this context, a School of Peace was organised in a pavilion in the centre of the Koufinou camp, where children were able to play, write and draw. On the last day of the School of Peace, all the children - about 70 - received their certificates and a gift: school supplies in a bag handmade from cloth from Mozambique by a group of elderly women from the Community of Treviso
Despite cultural and linguistic differences, the School of Peace succeeded in breaking down barriers and creating new bonds, but also in strengthening old ones. You can see it on the faces of the children who have been living in the camp for several years: they remember faces and names, they recognise their Italian friends from afar and hurry to meet them. Their presence is, besides, a sign of stability in lives marked by precariousness, constant displacement – often with great difficulty and suffering – and an uncertain future. So the most frequently repeated word on their lips is: “shukran” – thank you.
