Witness change
I feel like dreaming is a luxury for people like us. It's hard to have dreams. I never really think about dreams, but mostly I think about how to survive
"I've always dreamed of a free democratic country where citizens have their dignity and where law is there" says Syrian refugee Wafa Moustafa (30). "I come from a very political family!" She explains. As a child, her father brought her to protests. "This past, that my dad shaped in a huge part, was and still is the thing that gives me this strength to continue!
When her father was arrested and detained by the Assad regime, she and her family were forced to flee to Turkey.
"And since that, I guess I felt that I lost myself. And I was very depressed." Despite that, she provided for her mother and sister for three years, until she was offered refuge in Germany and once again had to make the difficult decision to leave her family behind.
Now, in Berlin, she dedicates her life to political activism. The painful experiences "are still shaping my life." she says.
"By the end of the day when I go to my bed, I'm not 30 anymore. I'm six years old. A child…. who just wants her dad back."
Photo and Interview by Era Gultekin / a collaboration with Witness Change for OF @1000dreams @witness_change
"I feel like dreaming is a luxury for people like us. It's hard to have dreams. I never really think about dreams, but mostly I think about how to survive”, says Qussai (25), a queer Jordanian and Palestinian asylum seeker in London.
"I do think a lot about the past and the fact that I grew up in a developing country and in a country that persecutes people who are different and not just for them being gay, bisexual, or non-binary. But just differences aren't celebrated at all."
On the challenges he's faced, Qussai adds, "I guess self-acceptance was the biggest challenge…..I still struggle with mental health, definitely." His strengths are "being empathetic and also having a strong voice" and he believes that "vulnerabilities and our weaknesses and the things that we go through sometimes can be our greatest advantage." Though the future is uncertain, Qussai says,
"My dream now is to be a change-maker."
Photo and Interview by Nour Jarrouj / a collaboration with Witness Change for OF @witness_change @1000dreams
"I just wake up one morning and my mom told me we are going to Sweden." Grace (pseud, 23) moved to Stockholm from the Democratic Republic of Congo as a 12 year-old child of a refugee.
"My mom didn't told me a lot, but we come here to be reunited with our father." Grace had a new country, language and school. "I'm a very shy person," says Grace.
She recalls being afraid of being bullied "because I couldn't speak Swedish or something, but I had my sister that's make me like going through it." She didn't enjoy her new school and remembers how sad that made her mom:
"To see her sad that make me anpassa mig [adapt] to accept the situation.
Now, Grace sees being able to study in Sweden as an opportunity. "My dream is to become a business controller," she says. Grace sees study as the path to a better job so that she might "take care of my mom and buy her a new house, or send her back home as she wishes, so I can take care of my sisters.”
Photo and Interview by Ali Lorestani / a collaboration with Witness Change for OF @witness_change @1000dreams
