Breaking Walls Director/Founder/CEO, Fran Tarr is excited to share a new addition to our monthly story – the impact the Breaking Walls experience is having on our young people’s lives and communities. Oriol (Barcelona) and Majda (Tangier) share how Breaking Walls has motivated each of them.
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Oriol –
“My mum once told me that, when I was a child, I was a little artist. I loved painting. She told me that, lots of times, I came back from school with an amazing idea in my mind, willing to paint it. I always had the support of my grandma, who helped me develop this ability. Then it was singing. I could stay, all day long, singing and singing until I had no voice. Some people never understood what singing meant to me. I never stopped, anyways. A few years later, acting came to me like a door opening right in front of me to a new world. Finally, when I was six years old I started having an interest in dancing. I found it magnificent, that is why my mum brought me to see a ballet school. A few weeks later, I was already finding myself comfortable on those tights. But one day, something changed, the society made me realize that ballet was I girls sport, so boys couldn’t do it. That is why I quit it. That was the stupidest decision I ever made.
Breaking Walls Tangier saved my life. There, I met amazing people who helped me realize that I wasn’t alone. I met artists like me, who had also been excluded by society, but who were brave enough to say “I don’t accept it”. Who fought for their dreams. For their happiness. Breaking Walls taught me that I had the voice to fight injustice and prejudgment. That we had built towers and towers of stereotypes and we needed to leave those ones apart and follow our hearts. We have been trying to classify every single thing, but the truth is that sports, clothes or even colors do not have gender!
So this year, I joined ballet school, again. I feel confident and secure. Ballet is one of the things I like the most, and I won’t stop doing it because the world thinks I shouldn’t. Every time that I dance I feel free. I stop thinking about everything but dancing. So from now on, I will never feel ashamed of who I am. Do you know why? Because I like it. Me, Oriol, the artist!”
Majda –
From October the 12th to October 19th, I participated in a project under the name of “inclusion café” with 27 participants from seven different countries. The aim of the project was to discuss migrants, asylum seekers, and refugee integration into local communities. The project took place in Italy, right in the city of Alessandria.
When we first got there we started with activities to get to know each other and understand what the project is about. Then we talked about our cause which is refugees and migrants generally and shared opinions and personal experiences. Then we saw a presentation about the refugee and migrant integration in Alessandria that explained the struggle between what the city and the community as a whole are trying to do for the refugees positively; and, the thoughts and narratives of the ruling right-wing party.
During the next three days, we were out there in the city trying to get real knowledge about how the situation is concerning our topic. We split into four groups; the Citizens group, the schools’ group, the NGOs group, and the research group. Each group was supposed to conduct a survey or activities to sense how the community of Alessandria feels about migrants, while also evaluating the level of inclusion of different migrants and refugees in the community.
I was part of the Citizens group. Our mission consisted of heading to the streets of Alessandria to conduct a survey, collect info and raise awareness about the phenomenon of refugees and migrants in Italy. Now, of course, this can’t be as easy as it sounds because while being on the street trying to target my first citizen to ask, I realized that I actually stood out and felt different which made my task a bit more challenging. Some Italians refused to talk to us, some said they don’t discuss politics; but, some were very open to the discussion too.
The results were not disappointing. The next day we went to the market and we tried giving out Syrian sweets for shoppers to start a conversation about refugees and migrants. At the end of each day, I was glad to realize that I had that sense of bravery to be able to step out and have conversations with different strangers. It made me realize that raising awareness about a humanitarian crisis doesn’t need major action plans, but sometimes it can all start with a smile and a conversation.
After three days of research, it was the time of discussion and reflection on our findings. Afterward, we had a big session of brainstorming about what we can do in our own communities to improve the situation of migrants and make them feel more included. On the last day of the project, we had a cultural night, where each country had to cook a national dish to share it with everyone (this includes the social Domus organization the organized the project and the refugees hosted within their project.)
To prepare our national dish we were taken to the house of two Moroccan refugees Omar (19) and Ahmad (20) who reached Italy after spending five days on a little boat in the middle of the sea when they were minors. They hosted us in their home and helped us cook while talking with them about their hardship in their own country and what brought them there to Italy at a very young age.
I think the last day is the one that left me with the strongest impression because I realized that those boys had to go through a lot at such a young age and that their ultimate motive was not being in Europe but to support their families and do something with their lives. Ahmad and Omar are one of the millions of refugees and migrants all over the world that put their life as a price for a better future. Despite the terrible economic and social problems in their country, their love for it was still unconditional even when they felt that it didn’t give them as much as they deserved.
This kind of feeling resonated heartily with me not just because I was from the same land, but because no issue in my country could ever change the way I love it.
To conclude, as a young woman living in a world that rains troubling issues every day, I am very thankful for platforms like Breaking Walls that take the care to actually listen to the youth and remind us that we are capable of accomplishing so much personally and for our world.
