The idea came to Carlo last year, to bring a small group of social workers from the “Il Samaritano” cooperative in Verona to Bosnia. To see for yourself, to learn, to understand where the kids who then land in Italy come from. Here we are, in front of the mural painted in Bihać in 2011: Simone, Enrico, Fabio, Anna, Annalisa, Carlo and Paolo.
Carlo, who fortunately speaks French, with a Congolese boy, leaving for the “game”
With Muhammad, who we learned has finally made it to Europe, where he would like to become a pizza chef.
Outside the Borići camp, in Bihać, where we had the opportunity to talk to various kids.
In the photo below: with Veljko and Dragica, long-time friends.
We also had the opportunity to meet with representatives of various local NGOs who informed us about the current situation. Below with Vedran from the JRS association.
With Silvia Maraone and Claudia Coladonato, of IPSIA BIH.
We then went to Velika Kladuša, where we met Alma, from the Rahma association.
With Jasmina, who has been involved in social work for years.
And finally, we went to see the biggest and most horrible squat… an old abandoned factory where so many refugees passed through.
Since there was going to be a presentation of the book Theresa helped write, with others of the NGO Balkanbrucke, another Meet Up happened almost spontaneously in Berlin! Michael and I met in Munich and picked up Rebin, whom we had met several times in Bosnia but didn’t see since 2 years, and Junus, similar story. How great to meet again in a new context! Not without its challenges but definitely more uphill and with the feeling of going somewhere.
Here’s the power bank Rebin used on his last game, and now he gave it to me to pass on to some other gamer in need👏
In Berlin, we were given a very warm welcome by the Adday’s family, in a Syrian restaurant. Actually, a very delicious and abundant welcome!
These Meet ups are time for relaxing, reconnecting, eating together, sharing stories, an event to present the Walk and talk about future plans. And play songs together! Thank you Israel for joining us with your beautiful music.
Here at Amloud’s home we had the pleasure to meet again Ashab, whom we had met in Velika Kladusa exacty 2 years ago, when he was still a minor staying in Miral camp.
What a nice young man he has become! Here’s something he wrote:
| 18.2.2022 Friday Bosnia | 18.2.2024 Sunday Germany (This text is dedicated to the people who gave me a new perspective, a new hope, courage to fight depression in difficult times and have been in touch with me for the past two years. Much love and heartfelt thanks.)
18 February 2022 is Friday A young boy is lost in thought in the Miral refugee camp in Velika Kladuša, a small village in Bosnia. What will happen to us in the future? Oh God, when will we reach Italy? If we remain here in Bosnia in such conditions, we will not be able to do anything in the future. Such strange and strange questions were coming in his mind when suddenly a boy named Salman comes and tells him that today some people from Italy have come to meet me, I have to go to the city to meet them. You wanna join us? Ashab: Who are those people? Why would they come here from Italy to meet you? Salman: Man, they help the refugees, I have talked to them a little while ago on Messenger, they will reach the city at 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Please come with me they are very nice people.
When we arrive in the center of Velika Kladuša, there are about 6 or 7 people who greet us enthusiastically. As the time for Friday prayer approaches, these nice peoples people know that these two Pakistani boys, Salman and Ashab, are Muslims, so they send us to pray in the mosque. After that we go to a coffee shop.
[the picture below, our first meeting with Ashab and Salman in the bar]
Then we go to a small restaurant for lunch and spend about 2-3 hours there. Talking to this group from Italy, there was a distinct feeling of positive energy coming from them. There was a glimmer of hope that our life is still not that bad, it’s a different thing that Ashab you only have one pant, t-shirt and jacket and old shoes and your feet hurt because of these shoes. You have tried to enter Italy from Bosnia about 6 times but unfortunately every time you are beaten by the police and deported back. Among them, when a young man Rikko was talking to me, I felt like direct knowledge was being transferred to me. At 16:30 me and Salman came back to Miral cam. But…. Literally this 2- 3 hour meeting made me think. They have come from Italy to visit us in Bosnia as a group, spending time and money, and they are also paying for our food here. But still all these people are happy. Who does that in today’s age of materialism? Who are these people? What is the purpose of their life? How are they so happy? After much thought, I did some searching on Google and found that such people are called human rights activists and social workers. Love for humanity and race without discrimination. Religion, trying to help everyone is the secret of their happiness. At that time I also thought that one day I will become a human, rights + social + political activist, social worker, fight for people’s rights and help them. Just as these people met me and gave us a new hope, I will do the same. And my journey begins in Braunschweig, Germany, where I would begin my political and activist life. From Braunschweig’s schools, streets, local politics, Braunschweig Rathaus, state parliament, to the German parliament (Bundestag), I speak out for youth and human rights. And there comes a time when I become vice president of several organizations like Migrantifa Braunschweig. I work as a volunteer with many refugee aid organizations. The boy, who was not known before, now his name appears in the newspapers. Who had nothing, and today he has everything. He is fond of books; today he has more than 200 books, computer, iPad, many clothes, many shoes, bicycle, and many God given blessings. I don’t know how the love, respect, development of so many people liked me happened in such a short time because I still don’t know German well.😂
All this is to tell you people that your small actions work. Trying to help can change lives with one’s thoughts. I don’t know how many people’s lives will be changed because of this one group Walk of Shame. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. If today I am living happily in Germany or have achieved so much, then surely you guys have played a big role in it.😇
Two years ago, in Bosnia. The meeting Ashab talks about:
Last November another trip to Bosnia took place, and besides Luca and I we had with us a newcomer, Fiamma, who brought much new inspiration and love. Here’s the team.
Much of our focus was in Bihac, particularly serving hot tea around the bus station and wherever we met people, since it started getting cold.
We spent time with people, mostly Curds from Turkey but also North Africans, listening to their stories and trying to help in whichever way we could, from searching for medicines, mobile phones, warm clothes, etc. Once more, Luca entertained the children with his Big Bubbles Show.
Then we were able to bring some more colour to Camp Borici, in cooperation with Silvia Maraone and other volunteers from IPSIA. This time we painted on the floor, and before leaving Luca did his magic show again for children and parents. Last time we were in this camp was in 2020, Michael was still with us and it was actually his last trip.
We ended this trip visiting once more Andelka and family in their small village near Velika Kladusa and enjoying their amazing hospitality, so typical of this area.
We knew we had to go back to Bosnia, for various reasons. People were waiting for us, in camps and squats, and a visit meant we could bring some warmth during the coldest part of the year.
Last time we visited it was in the beginning of December.
In the meantime, a miracle happened, possibly a Christmas miracle. It’s one of those good news you rarely find on the media, especially these days: we heard that Ali, a dear friend who has been on the move for several years and was staying in a camp in Velika Kladusa, was going through many sleepless nights, as the terrible and painful state of his teeth didn’t let him sleep.
A normal dentist wouldn’t do.
That’s why one day I sent a message to Dr. Ibrahim, from the Dental Centar Omnident Clinic in Cazin, explaining the situation and asking if he could see Ali and assess what needed to be done. The replay was pretty catastrophic. There was much work to be done and the cost was higher than what we first estimated. We were thinking to keep collecting donations, when I received the most amazing message from Dr. Ibrahim:
“I will try to collect some money for him, so we can fix all of his teeth. We talked. I talked to some of my dentist friends and they will pitch in.
I will not charge any labour, just the materials and the dental laboratory work.
You can give as much as you can afford, me and my family will cover the rest as charity.
We are happy to put a smile on his face.“
And a big smile he did put on, as you can see in the pictures below. It was great to meet such a young, generous and highly accomplished doctor. Thank you Ibrahim for your sample of love, so precious now, when in our fearful world so many barriers, walls and divisions are increasingly being erected.
And then we spent time with many other dear friends who are still waiting for their turn to cross, who have been on this journey for 4, 5 and even 14 years!
Some are still trying, others understandably feel like giving up.
We played music, drank tea, warmed up around the fire, and had a special dinner out together, something definitely unusual. One of them said: We are like family!
We also got to know some very nice locals, who invited us in and told us a bit of what life is like in these small Bosnian villages.
December, time to think of Christmas and all the joy this time of the year brings. But also time to think of people stuck along the borders with Europe, and the terrible conditions they are forced to endure, especially now that the weather is getting cold and rainy.
This is the fifth trip taken this year, and usually we were a team of four or five people. This time we were just two, Luca and I, but the trip was wonderful, intense and life changing.
As usual, the goal of the trip was not to distribute food or clothes, even though we did help people along the way in various ways and still are. The main goal was to spend time with people, where we found them, mostly in their squats, or taking a walk with them, or sitting to have a hot drink together. Yes, it was getting cold and thankfully even the most miserable places had a wood stove.
We took with us a guitar and a strange instrument only Luca could play, called didgeridoo. Music is always an amazing tool to communicate and connect. It can turn the ugliest place into a hall, elevate our spirits to more noble thoughts, break down walls and leave us with special memories. We sang and played everywhere, and in one instance the owner of the bar, who at first didn’t want any migrants and refugees in, changed his mind, joined in the performance, and insisted on paying for all the drinks. That happened on the first day and it encouraged us to go on with our project of re humanisation of relationships between all kinds of people. Here’s a few pictures of our musical performances.
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Luca is a professional entertainer, and even though it didn’t work out for him to perform inside an official camp, he didn’t let any other opportunity pass to make children happy, like in these pictures, with his magic, gigantic bubble balls!
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Once, we went to visit a group of guys in a squat, and while talking we found out that day was the birthday of one of them! So we sang Happy birthday to you, and more songs, and the following day we shared some food together. S. said it was the best thing that happened in his life since a long time!
We spent a lot of time listening, talking and learning. We are of course still in touch with many of the people we met: some of them made it, some are still there hoping for their turn. Many display an amazing will to live and to overcome any obstacle in order to reach their dream. Some have little light left in their eyes, and that is understandable, considering they’ve been on road for years, encountering all kinds of hardships and violence.
We were impressed by this writing on the wall of one of the squats we visited:
October 2021: another trip to visit the invisibles who have been flowing through Bosnia since beginning 2018. Here’s some segments from our journal.
It’s been the third trip this year, a project of rehumanisation between European citizens and people on the move organised with Walk of Shame Europe. This time we started from Sarajevo, where Sjouke, Sara and I joined Niels and Theresa, who were already there helping out at Intergreat, a new project of integration started by Sanela, long time activist.
In Sarajevo we got to meet other great world changers, such as the team of Collective Aid
And Ines, of Compass 071. Both NGOs are helping a great number of people on a daily basis, with food, clothes and other basic necessities.
We met Adman and Yasin on the bus and invited them for some food. They both had hurt legs and a lot of stories to tell about pushbacks and the life between borders. Adman and Yasin just read the letter we are giving out to people on the move, the one that starts with:”Dear brother and sister….”. It really brought a smile on their faces, a ray of sunshine in a rainy day and a painful one for them, as they had to walk around on crutches, as a result of a failed game.
In the city center, we had a coffee together with Abdullah and Adil from Morocco. Theresa talked with Abdullah when he was selling tissues to car drivers waiting for a traffic light. By pure coincidence, we met him again when we were walking in the city centre. They were very touched by the fact that we invited them and by the letter we gave them. They said it was the first time they were ever invited in like this.
We then took a bus to reach Velika Kladusa, with the intention to meet Nahid Akbari. a very young and brave Afghani activist and take time with the many Afghani refugees staying at the Helicopter. And we did. Here with Nahid on my left, [you can follow her on her FB page] and Karim on my right.
This morning we finally met Dzeneta, of Emmaus organization, who traveled from Tuzla and today opened a kitchen for distribution of food just outside Velika Kladusa. We met her at the place for showers, same as the one in Tuzla, where we met last March. She is an explosion of positive energy!!
We spent a couple of days at the Helicopter, a makeshift camp of mainly Afghan people, waiting for a good occasion to try the game. There are single men here but mostly families with children. Today we have good weather, but the whole week before has been rainy and cold, imagine living with kids in those conditions. Two local people were cooking food for the group.
People invited us to eat all over the place, even offering us drinks and food they had bought for the game. Even the children kept offering us food and things, such insanely generous people! We talked, played music, ate and had tea, and really connected from the heart.
I personally had a rough night thinking of all these people, families and children we met during these days attempting one more game. Walking thru the woods in fear, like criminals. In the cold, in the dark. Why?
Just check out these pictures:
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We then travelled to Bihac, where we briefly met Natascia, a dear friend fully engaged in helping people on the move.
Today we visited the centre of Bihac, along the banks of the Una river. We took a look at some abandoned factory buildings which were migrant squats till recently. One is in the centre, the other one (called the metal factory) is in the industrial area. Not far from the latter is the building that hosted Bira camp.
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This is the corner of the cemetery where people on the move are buried when they die in this region. Most of the bodies were not identified. We decided to put some flowers and offer a prayer. Just outside the cemetery we met some people who are living in a squat, and one young man in particular remembered us from our visit last March, and now we are in touch. Keeping in touch is one of the goals of these trips and a great source of encouragement.
I’m so grateful I got to go on one more Walk, for the many reasons I went before, but especially to have the chance to share a part of the journey of people on the move, with shame but also trying to add to the reservoir of love and compassion this world must have. I also believe the ripple effect.
I’m so thankful for my team, an amazing mix of ages, nationalities, backgrounds. It was a great breaking down the walls week!
We returned to Bosnia, after quite some time…yes, it was time to visit again many dear old friends and places so dear to our hearts.
In the picture below, the whole group as they were leaving from Home, our volunteer center in Croatia. From the left: Fabio, Serena, Noemi, Fabiano, Carla, Luca, Annalisa and Paolo.
Beneath the Stari Most (the Old Bridge) of Mostar.
Visiting Semir, Elvira and family: the traditional Bosnian coffee
Visiting Safet and Envera.
The new glass bridge over Mostar.
Noemi, Luca and Annalisa at Blagaj.
Sarajevo ljubavi moja (Sarajevo, my love).
“Here the dead speak, while the living are silent” (War Museum ’92-’95 in Sarajevo).
Potočari Memorial
Visiting Senad, Elvira and family, in Potočari.
Painting a mural in the center for disabled people “Leptir”, in Potočari.
Željka (manager of the center) and Carla.
On the way back, visiting Ilija, Svjetlana and family in Osječak.
Following a weekend during which a few friends and coworkers from the Walk of Shame movement met at our Volunteering Center in Croatia, we decided to also revisit Bihac, the fairly nearby city in Bosnia where many initiatives were taken, and where a great number of refugees/people on the move have been residing in camps and squats, hoping to make it over the border and find freedom and a better life in Western Europe.
After many Zoom meetings, it was great to finally meet face to face, have fun together, work on some projects (like finalising the cards written by European students to people stuck at the doors of EU) and discuss a few topics.
Our time in Bihac was short but intense. Rikko and son, along with Laura, visited some of the squats recently closed down, and met a few more people on the move. On the way back home, they visited some villages on the border, practically inhabited by refugee families trying to make it over the border.
In the meantime, Michael and Anna worked on a small mural inside the spaces of U Pokretu, a new and very promising cultural center recently founded and still getting set up. Here’s their presentation on their FB Page: U Pokretu was born from the desire of young people, inhabitants of Bihać together with international volunteers, to create a meeting and training place for local youngsters, willing to enhance the artistic-cultural potential of the local population, through the implementation of educational and recreational activities , with the aim of sensitising the local community to current problems, issues and challenges, such as migration, sustainable development, civic awareness, etc. One of our main goals is to promote active citizenship through local and international volunteering, with international exchanges (e.g. Erasmus + Youth for Mobility, European Solidarity Corps, etc.)
Letters from European students to people on the move: wherever we found them, usually hanging around in parks. They were very surprised upon receiving these kind and warm missives, and some of them are still in touch!
Finally, we got to meet again with some wonderful volunteers tirelessly pouring energies in this needy field, year after year. A testimony to the power of love that human beings can share, in spite of obstacles and set backs. Thank you Gian Andrea, Lorena, Silvia, Claudia, Natascia, Damir and Marine. And many more…
After over a year, because of limitations imposed by Covid restrictions, some of us finally made it back to our beloved Bosnia!
The first week I was part of a long awaited project of re humanisation, organised by the Walk of Shame movement. The goal was to spend time with people on the move stuck in Bosnia. That meant eating and sometimes sleeping at their places, mainly gloomy squats, or inviting them over to ours, simple rented rooms, walking with them, singing with them, listening to their stories and pleas.
the team
It was an intense week, and we traveled from Zagreb, to Tuzla, to Sarajevo and finally to Bihac.
We met so many people: refugees and migrants, volunteers, locals and even some old friends. We wanted to listen, to empathise, to encourage and inspire hope, to learn, using every minute of every day we had at our disposal.
We also had a team of friends from several European countries who followed us daily on a sort of on line journal we were posting, and a support team. It was really like having them with us, and in reality many of them would have come, had it not been for the Covid travel complications.
It was pretty obvious for the ones reading this journal that we were facing daily challenges: in the first place, getting to know each other as a team, learning to make decisions, allowing space for mistakes and then spending time with people living in desperate conditions, our hearts bursting with empathy and compassion, but also with a feeling of helplessness. And shame.
We couldn’t perform miracles and we didn’t have a magic wand that could open the way and get these people where they wanted to go, as much as we would have liked to. We were often overwhelmed. We shared with them what we could. We didn’t go as volunteers or reporters, but just as simple human beings seeking to communicate personally with at least a few of those thousands people stuck in Bosnia.
I believe if more people would try this full immersion experience, there would be a quicker process of re humanisation and possibly more changes at a political and social level.
We are still communicating daily with many of these newfound friends. We hope the best for them. And we are planning more Walks of Shame, maybe not in the same format, but for sure in the same spirit.
Here’s some random pics:
Once the Walk of Shame Bosnia was over, I decided to stay in Bihac a few more days, to be able to take time with various friends and volunteers I knew and co operated with during these past three years, and also to furtherly explore the humanisation process started with my WoS team.
with Natasa and Armina, of IOM
The following day, I was invited to spend some time at a squat in the woods. With my guitar! It wasn’t the first time I used it during this trip. It was a great companion and of course music brings people together, breaks barriers and cheers us up even in the most difficult conditions. We had a great time singing together all kinds of songs, improvising percussions, listening to some of their traditional songs and drinking a very much appreciated cup of hot tea!
Silvia, another dear friend from the organisation IPSIA, proposed I visit again the Sedra camp, where I had previously painted a small mural and visited with our show. It was here that Michael performed his last earthly show last year and where this mural was painted in his memory. Abanoub, a young man staying in the camp, helped me to paint the final touch. Which could only be Tony….
I also got invited to a workshop organised by IPSIA, specifically for women. They were making beautiful bags, and since I had my guitar, we ended up singing a few happy songs. Thank you Abanoub for helping me to sing! No practise, just love for music. And thank you Claudia and Chiara for including me in this activity.
Another highlight was to visit with Damir and Marine the center of their new association, called U Pokretu. It’s quite spacious but needs a lot of work. They had just gotten the keys that day and their enthusiasm was so contagious! It will be a great place for workshops, young volunteers training, cultural and artistic activities and more. I offered to go back and paint a mural somewhere, since there’s many rooms and many walls…
Let’s end for now with a quote by Albert Schweitzer:
‘Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.‘
Better World Croatia / Per un mondo migliore 