ARCHIE

Age: 5

City/Country of origin: Jersey, near United Kingdom.

Marital Status: -

Children: -

Profession: Pupil primary school

Hobbies: Football

Reason for staying on Lesvos: Holiday with my grandparents who live on Lesvos.

My mood today (1-10): ...

Why? ...

My advice for the world: ...

WISSAM

Age: 6

City/Country of origin: Damascus, Syria

Marital status: -

Children: -

Profession: Pupil primary school

Hobbies: Karate

Reason for staying on Lesvos: On my way out from Syria

My mood today (1-10): 10

Why? Here in the wood I can play with swings and a climbing frame, but in the camp it was very cold last night.

My advice for the world: Wissam's mother adds: Leave kids out of the whole situation, and leave civilians out of this dirty war. 

THE MEETING

Archie and Wissam were the youngest who participated in our project.  Before their conversation began they were busy collecting pine cones.

‘What is your favourite sport?’ Archie asked later on the swings. ‘Push ups,’ Wissam said enthusiastically. He demonstrated them.  He had learned how to do them during karate lessons in Damascus. 

‘And what about fooball?’ Archie asked because Archie was a real football fan.  He looked a bit shocked when Wissam said without any hesitation that he didn’t like football very much, but did like making houses with his clay.  And from the little fish Nemo. ‘I like to play with my Lego,’ Archie then said, ‘and my favourite colour is red.’

At the time of this discussion Wissam was still under the impression that he was out on an adventure with his family instead of fleeing.  On Lesbos he was given nice colouring books and markers which he, while sitting on his father’s backpack, enthusiastically coloured in.

But the adventure soon became less fun when night fell and they had to sleep outside on a parking lot while it was cold.  In the weeks that followed, during the difficult journey through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, Wissam angrily asked his parents 

several times when they were going back home.  As far as he was concerned, the adventure was over.

At the end of September the family ended up in a tent camp in Austria where they had to mandatorily give their fingerprints. That meant that they could no longer travel to Germany. ‘I have never seen Wissam so angry as when he saw the tent in Austria,’ his mother emailed us, ‘because he knew that it would once again be cold.’

‘What do you need?’ our translator Reem asked over the telephone. ‘A shower and a warm room with some privacy for our family,’ they answered, ‘but we remain strong, it will be okay.’ At night they sleep close to one another. This family was once used to a big house in Damascus.

In mid-October the family was moved to a refugee centre with their own room and own shower and the asylum procedure started.  Since Wissam was a minor he could immediately go to school.  Without knowing anything of the German language he immediately liked it there.

During the conversation with Archie he said that he wanted to become an ‘eye doctor.’ We hope that in about 25 years that we can take a picture of Wissam in a white doctor’s coat somewhere in the world.