“Can I open my own beauty salon now that I have this diploma?”, Amber asks her teacher. Amber is 33 years old and comes from Pakistan. Along with 14 other people she attended the free manicure-pedicure seminars organized by SolidarityNow in Thessaloniki. Today is the award ceremony and the students have gathered at SolidarityNow’s Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki to celebrate their success.

Amber is a force of serenity. She is a calm presence which conceals her dynamism and determination. The way she speaks as well as her personal story is that of person who is not easily discouraged. Amber has been living with her family in Greece for the past 9 months. Her first concern is to learn Greek, which she considers to be a difficult language. She came to the Blue Refugee Center for that very reason. “I want to learn Greek, because I want to stay in Greece and find a job, namely, to open my own business, but also because I want to communicate with people”, she says. Amber has a degree in International Trade studies, and had also started a postgraduate course, which she was not able to complete since she decided to open her own a beauty salon. More specifically, she was a hair stylist.

Amber was informed on the manicure and pedicure seminars through the Center’s Employability Counselor. “I thought it was a great opportunity to learn new things and new techniques. Onyoplasty is fairly artistic, and that’s why I like it “, Amber says. The lessons were held every Saturday and ran from 9am to 5pm. Amber speaks fondly about her learning experience. Aside from the lessons, she had the opportunity to get to know her classmates better. “We learned all the techniques, and beyond that, while practicing on each other, we talked about our lives and past experiences, and I loved it”, she states. The goal now is to find work on this subject and to subsequently own a beauty salon in the future. “I was studying for quite some time to get this diploma and now that I hold it in my hands I’m very excited! Now I want to move to the center of Thessaloniki and find a position as a care technician”, she notes.

It is worth mentioning at this point that this seminar was designed according to the needs of SolidarityNow beneficiaries and corresponded exclusively to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. “First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave me this opportunity. The fact that I have burnt my fingers made this experience particularly significant for me!”, she says.

When Amber was in Turkey she was working in a factory that designed labels. There she had a serious work accident, which created a second degree burn on the fingers of one hand. She had to come to Greece to have her hand examined by an expert for the first time. “I decided to attend these seminars to take care of my fingers and nails again because, like all women, I am interested in looking beautiful”, Amber explains. “Sometimes people ask me what has happened to my fingers, and I answer simply that everything is fine and I’ve just burned them. For people, appearance plays an important role. Everybody notices the external and does not go beyond that. As people, however, we must look at our inner selves “, she concludes.

“Do you consider yourself to be a positive person?”, we spontaneously ask Amber. “No, I do not. I view things in a negative light. I do not know why, perhaps because of past experiences”, she answers and immediately hastens to change her first statement, saying; “I’m not always like that. Sometimes I believe positive things will happen to me “. From an early age, Amber feels like she has been constantly running or traveling. “All I want from my life is to feel safe and content,” she says with excitement.

* The Blue Refugee Center is supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF and funded by the European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO).

** The SolidarityNow Education Program is implemented with the support of UNICEF and the European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO).