New Year – 01/01/2014

Hyab and Tesfu; after a busy day at StARS.

It is exactly midnight (01 January 2014) right now in Cairo, Egypt.  As I write this reflection, I am also enjoying the New Year celebration with flatmates and a guest. We are celebrating a coffee ceremony while watching Eri-TV. All of us here managed to talk to our families in Eritrea. One of my flatmates (girl, 23) burst into tears after talking to her mother. All of us gave her a hug… and the coffee is there to distract her. She is taking care of the coffee.

After a tumultuous year, everyone here seems to enjoy the moment.  2013 had been a challenging year in terms of safety; with the chaotic upheavals and violent protests on the streets, living in Egypt had been and, to some extent, continues to be so uncomfortable. In fact, it has been so scary.

The protection issues aside, the last year has been so busy for me. I had to work day and night for the entire year to support victims of the Sinai trafficking. On the one hand, it was an honour of my life to have worked with the survivors and, on the other, listening to the harrowing stories of the survivors almost every day was deeply disempowering and traumatising. It was disempowering because I could not do anything about it. It was traumatising to bear witness the mutilated, burnt and bruised bodies of the survivors.

My personal commitment this year is to advocate for the release of survivors of trafficking who got stuck in prisons in different parts of Cairo. I understand doing so is so risky but the cause is bigger than myself. I can be cautious about it but cannot ignore or not do anything about it. Luckily, I have my best friend and colleague Tesfu Kebede who is as committed as I am and the entire refugee community supporting us. No matter how risky, we will keep insisting for the basic rights of our friends, our fellow refugees.

Happy New Year!