My name is Smaro Makropoulou and I am 24 years-old. The last 5 months I am working voluntary at the Press Office of SolidarityNow in Thessaloniki. I studied Journalism in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The communication of the refugee crisis became part of my academic interests. When I finished my BA, I started my MA in Crisis Journalism, where I studied the media coverage on the refugee crisis.

I thought volunteering in a Non-Governmental Organization would be a good chance to familiarize myself with the refugee crisis. I would be able to learn about the needs and the integration of this population, as well as the communication of the refugee crisis. What I didn’t know then, was that I would get much more out of this work experience. A friend o mine, who worked as a teacher at SolidarityNow’s Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki, spoke to me about the organization and it’s activities.

I decided to communicate with SolidarityNow’s Program Manager (Volunteers). I expressed her my interest in volunteering. I was surprised when the Head of Communications, Sophia Ioannou, contacted my directly and asked for a meeting. She introduced me to the organization’s Press & Event Officer -Northern Greece, Eleni Stamatoukou, with whom I have since started a very interesting collaboration.

Helping Eleni with the media, I found what I was looking for: knowledge. I have never done this work before and it took me a while to adjust to the new environment. However, I gained a lot of knowledge. I learnt that refugee crisis requires a communication strategy. Also I was trained to report appropriately on this issue.

I have learned so much more than I expected in SolidarityNow. I met passionate people, who make a positive change at people’s lives. Also, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with beneficiaries from different countries. I believe that cultural exchange experience has an important impact on people.

My thirst of knowledge, and my tendency to help others led me to SolidarityNow. Refugee crisis is understood differently by the people. There are some things you will never understand until you experience them yourself. The human stories I have heard and the personal contact with the people offered me a good opportunity to expand my knowledge and develop new skills.

Unfortunately, my collaboration with SolidarityNow ends. I have decided to choose a new career path. I wish to collaborate again with the organization, under different circumstances. I would like to thank Eleni, for the time she has dedicated to me.

“I remember my past and think that, today, everything is perfect”

Raha, beneficiary of the Future Interpreters program, SolidarityNow

Saturday, in the Thessaloniki Solidarity Center.

Young people from different countries have gathered to attend the training seminars for interpreters, entitled Future Interpreters, implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of the Guerilla Foundation. The instructors are preparing a game for the attendants – a role-playing game.

The beneficiaries-participants split up in three teams. They have to organize a fictional appointment between an Afghan beneficiary and the Asylum Service in just a few minutes. The team consists of a lawyer who represents the beneficiary, a young man from Palestine who plays the beneficiary from Afghanistan and Raha, from Iran, who has the role of the interpreter. We don’t know whether the Asylum Service will rule in favor of the beneficiary, however those who participated in the role-playing game learned how to handle a procedure like this, how to cultivate people’s empathy and how to prevent future challenging cases of people in need.

After the seminar, people talk about the course and their impressions. Today was the seminar’s last day. Among the participants in the Future Interpreters program is Raha, born and raised in Iran. Raha is calm and gentle. Her black, Iranian eyes loom in her white, porcelain face. But apart from her beauty, Raha wins people over with her kind manners and her smile. “We’ve learnt so many things in this seminar. From dressing properly to handling a difficult situation; when the beneficiaries are angry, for example. I also enjoyed the different teaching techniques our instructors used with which they made the seminar even more interesting. Furthermore, the interaction with the other attendants created a warm atmosphere. I would love to find a job in this field”, Raha says.

As we talk, Raha opens up more and the discussion turns into a deep confession. She came to Greece with her husband a year ago. “I was facing many problems in my country”, she confesses. Raha grew up in a middle-class urban Iranian family. From a very young age, art classes were her favourites. So, when she grew up, she studied art and became a painting teacher.

Raha is divorced and a mother of an 11-year-old child. Today, however, she has a happy marriage, which went through many difficulties. The couple went through them united until the end, and today they live in their own house in Northern Greece. Coming to Greece, Raha decided to be baptized as a Christian. In fact, with her husband they decided to get married with a Christian wedding. They had already been married in Iran, but it was very important to them to re-seal their relationship. As she says, they didn’t have enough money to afford the ceremony. They were staying at an accommodation scheme far away from the city center and were unemployed. But in the end, Raha wore her new friend’s old wedding dress and got married to her husband before their good friends.

Time has passed and most of the attendants have left. The grey scenery of the city outside the window makes the melancholic atmosphere more intense. Raha’s voice and her story though is a ray of sunshine in this dark scenery. Raha considers herself very lucky to be in Greece – “People ask me why I want to stay in Greece, and I tell them, why not? Everything is great here. I am free, I can be with my husband, I can enjoy myself. Is there any better place in the world? I am very happy to be living in Greece. After everything I’ve been through, I can say I am strong and nothing can make me cry anymore”. Unlike Raha, her husband is not so optimistic. He complains about finding a job and how they will manage to get by. “I’m a little worried about my husband. For me, it’s different. I have been through many difficulties in my life. When I talk about my present and look at my past, I feel that, today, everything is perfect”, she adds. What she misses the most is her child; “my dream is to see my child again”. Her first husband has forbidden her from seeing and calling her child. The muscles in her face stretch and her eyes tear up. “When this is settled, I hope we can have a normal life in Greece”, Raha concludes.

*SolidarityNow implemented the Future Interpreters program, with the support of the Guerrilla Foundation and in collaboration with the Society for the Care of Minors and the PanHellenic Association of Professional Translators Graduates of the Ionian University.

Touba, beneficiary of the Future Interpreters program, SolidarityNow

It is a wet September morning in an apartment somewhere in Thessaloniki, and the couple drinks Turkish tea. “A friend from Istanbul brought it for us”, says Touba nostalgically, a former journalist in Turkey and now an asylum seeker in Greece.

Touba introduces herself.

She is a young woman who attends the training program for interpreters (Future Interpreters), implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of Guerilla Foundation. For one and a half month, refugees and migrants attended special training courses on the main practices and methodologies of community interpreting and intercultural mediation. The program is linked with SolidarityNow’s Employability Programs based in Athens and Thessaloniki Solidarity Centers. Touba has successfully completed the seminar and now holds the certificate signed by the Panhellenic Association of Professional Translators Graduates of the Ionian University (PEEMPIP).

But hew story starts long ago.

Touba is 35 years-old, mother of 2 children and married to the former editor-in-chief of a Turkish magazine. Her husband has been accused of “involvement in a terrorist organization” and “attempt of government overthrow” and sentenced to 22 years and 6 months imprisonment. For a long time, the couple had lived in a situation of fear. They were forced to part from each other and live hidden from the authorities that could find and arrest them. Her husband had already been imprisoned in the past for 2 months, due to a front page that had bothered the government. “Many of our friends are in prison as we speak, while others are missing”, says Touba.

She arrived in Greece with her family in December 2016 with the help of a smuggler. Greek authorities arrested them and transferred them in the Detention Center in Fylakio, Evros. They stayed there for 14 days. As journalists, they contacted the Greek Journalists’ Union, the members of which helped them to get to Thessaloniki. We ask her how the children dealt with the situation. “We tried to tell them it was all a big adventure, like a fairytale. We had to be careful. It is very easy for the kids to be traumatized”, says Touba. As she talks about what she’s been through, we don’t see her crying, not even once, but wearing a big smile instead. “I don’t know if I’m strong, but I am definitely optimistic. When I think about my pain, I always observe the pain and the lives of other people. In Turkey, I lost everything. I lost my job, my belongings. I have nothing of these here in Greece. But I have a house and money to buy food for my children. Things could be worse. But, life goes on, and I am starting over now”, she adds.

Greece, as she says, embraced them from the beginning.

“We have the same culture, the same climate. In the summer, I had been taking my children to the beach almost every day. Everything is nice here”, says Touba. Many people supported them and helped them to have a normal life. Among those were their neighbors, new friends, colleagues-Greek journalists, but also human rights organizations, like SolidarityNow. Her husband is currently working for an online newspaper and his wage can only cover the family’s basic needs. If everything works out, they can imagine their future in Greece. The kids go to the Greek school and speak very good the new language; as for her, she learns the language “siga-siga” (slowly), as she notes.

Touba found out about the “Future Interpreters” program from Anastasia Koukidou, Employability Consultant in Thessaloniki Solidarity Center, when she visited her to ask for support in finding a job. “I learnt many things, like the fact that just speaking some language is not enough, the interpreter’s job is in the details. There are many ways and different techniques to do this job right. This seminar was very beneficial for me”, says Touba. Apart from the classes, the atmosphere was very nice, too. “I met people from different countries like Iran, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and Palestine. It was very nice and fun to meet all these people. We are still friends with some of them. I would love to work as an interpreter. I like communicating with people, I like foreign languages and I would really like to do something that is about human rights”, she notes.

“I am certain that life will bring good things for me”.

*SolidarityNow implemented the Future Interpreters program, with the support of the Guerrilla Foundation and in collaboration with the Society for the Care of Minors and the PanHellenic Association of Professional Translators Graduates of the Ionian University.

Maria Petrocheilou,

Conference interpreter – Trainer in the Future Interpreters program

Through the slogan “we train tomorrow’s interpreters … today“, SolidarityNow started in May 2017 the innovative training program entitled Future Interpreters for Community Interpreters. The pro bono lessons, including training sessions in which participants were taught key practices and methodologies of community interpretation and intercultural mediation, were held for the 105 students at the organization’s Solidarity Centers in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Many people worked for this program – teachers, interpreters, people of the organization of various professional specialties. Still, this specialized training program required mainly the appropriate teachers-trainers; people with knowledge in the field and capable of passing on their knowledge to the participants, who were people from different parts of the world – refugees, migrants, asylum seekers – living in Greece.

One of them is Maria Petrochilou. Her profession is conference interpreter and speaks four languages – English, Italian, French, German. We ask about her experience in the Future Interpreters program with so many students from different countries, cultures, habits and she respond eagerly that “there is no difference to me – they are all students regardless of where they come from and what color their skin has“.

Maria has the knowledge and experience required to teach in this group of students after working for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In addition, her educational past includes studies in Athens, Trieste, Berlin, Geneva and interaction with people from all over the world.

She is aware of the increased sensitivity that an interpreter and intercultural mediator needs to have and get training for, so as to maintain his self-possession and integrity when interacting with vulnerable population groups. At the same time, however, the participants were trained to respond effectively while working under pressure and in need for immediate results. The principles of her teaching are based on the rigorous code of ethics regarding respect for human rights.

Today, when she thinks all these hours of teaching, the stories of the participants, the happy moments they have shared, she is very pleased to have been their teacher and is glad to learn that the knowledge shared with them will help them in finding a job as well in their personal development. Civil society needs people like Maria, since it is supported by and on them.

SolidarityNow implemented the Future Interpreters program, with the support of the Guerrilla Foundation and in collaboration with the Society for the Care of Minors and the PanHellenic Association of Professional Translators Graduates of the Ionian University.