10/01/2021
A happy New Year to All!
May you be safe and in peace.
Here is a short account of an amazing learning journey…
This past year, our “Magic Carpet” caravan school landed on a new frontier. An interface between Asia and Europe - and for so many people between life and so many deaths : Lesbos island.
We came for a week - and stayed for months on end. Stopped by so many hearts and smiles -and needs. Meeting, sharing, creating with poets, builders, teachers, musicians, entrepreneurs, or just vibrant humans from 80+ countries. Immersed in a tapestry bright in colours, drama, light.
With human prisoners, becoming experts in escape - Especially children..!
for whom even barbed wire can transform in silver horses 🦄,
a trash bag in a gliding eagle 🪁
and a puddle in the mud into a mirror to the stars.
Half of the world refugees are children - whose parents are trying to shield from all the world disasters, huddling at some awkward border of the world.
Children most often out of school.
A much transformative experience on all levels for us - that continues to resonate deep and wide.
Through this picture gallery -not necessarily chronological - you can have a feel the kaleidoscope of experiences and emotions we have recently been through.
Frontiers are places where the world reinvents itself, by confronting all its puzzles.
How come for instance, in our era, half of the planet is forced to go to school when they hate it, while another half is forced out of school, when they dream of it? Couldn’t we strike a balance one day? Education should not be a thing for children to endure - but yes, for societies to ensure.
Direct experience let us assured that such a world is within reach!
Limbos have so much to teach us.
What does life teach you when you are nobody (you have no valid papers, no identity),
in nowhere land (no longer home, not yet arrived at destination),
having nothing to do all day (having no legal rights to work and move freely)?
- or at least, that is what the world keeps telling you…
What keeps you alive, when the whole world is falling apart?
Darkness has one virtue : at least there, you can see clearly the lights. And in this dis-aster, how bright true stars can shine sometimes!🌟
One for example could be music, a stitcher of hearts, a binder of worlds. And all forms of creations, big and tiny.
Deep in people’s hearts also we found so many lights. People between one existence and another. Stuck in a life-in-between…cultures, communities, continents, and destinies… People cut off from family and friends at home - and still hardly related to people at destination. Uprooted, off-soil, gasping for open skies. Suspended to a bureaucratic decision that can take years. Acrobats on a shoestring between so many deaths.
And people compelled to connect with their deepest courage and their deepest soul. And the “something out there”. Vibrant with the energy of life in its immediacy.
We called our initiative “UpLift🪁”, inspired by the Afghan flying kites rising bright in the sky of Moria, as hope above all life miseries. To celebrate the beauty in what we were witnessing.
After all, sChOoL🤸♀️withOuT frOntiers’⛵ reason for being is to learn our way up, as one humanity - making space for a more cheerful and more united world to bloom. We wanted to braid the lifeline between one and the other. Act as a binding thread in this patchwork of life colours.
In Moria we had matter to be busy with!
Our main effort was to #change_the_narrative (-the rhapsody!;).
What, for instance, do you associate Afghanistan with?
For us now, it is hospitality, music, tenderness, warm bread, bright clothes, sparkling children eyes, poetry, volley-ball🏸, sing-songs and kites.
We gave direct support where needed, helping with logistics, cultural mediation, translation, connection with locals and partners to help build a multi-cultural school together. We held conferences, created reportages for international channels (TV5 WOrld, France24, AJ+) and videos to raise awareness and funds for these initiatives BY refugees.
Together we helped build a cross-cultural school for 2600 people, a playground, an open air theatre, held teacher workshops, activities for kids, and a One World Family festival.
With 740€ donations - and some elbow grease and cooperation and goodwil.
Painfully, we also learned humility. Our caring dimension was put in action and to a test. We failed in so many ways. And achieved little if any real change! By so many regards the situation is even more cryingly tragic now. The Wave Of hope school burned down to ashes. Oppression against safety seekers is ferocious.
But one thing we learned. Communication, and cooperation is key, on all levels. Especially : with the people concerned in the first line. Acting WITH the people and not for. There, we know it, magic happens. And real encounters.
The question is always, how do you do when structures in place are inadapted? How do you communicate with societies and authorities who don’t want to try, don’t want to see - are reluctant to even hear? How can we address so many urgent needs, despite so many adverse forces? Bridging divides between humans is a major challenge. We learn patience.
Still, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”! We need to persevere. We shall overcome, we will learn. One child at a time, if necessary.
Currently we are running a pen-friends project, to create relations between refugee children and European through correspondence 💌. Everything is lacking to people in exile, but especially connection in transition. And “first world” children get enriched with other perspectives and global awareness.
A school in the UK, one in Belgium and one in Germany are participating. If you are a school teacher, you are welcome in the project.
In parallel, we are preparing an exhibition and a short film. And we strive to help the families in the film.
You can empower our actions by spreading the word and donations. We are a non-profit with zero administrative costs, and donations go directly where needed.
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/school-without-frontiers/formulaires/2/en
IBAN : FR76 10278 06043 00021 082601 95
Thank you for your trust and messages of sympathy.
With ferocious, desperate and yet unwavering commitment.
Lonaïs for sChOoL🤸♀️withOuT frOntiers’!⛵ UpLift project🪁.
With Συνύπαρξη και επικοινωνία στο Αιγαίο - Siniparxi
Wave Of Hope
Butterfly solidarity
Gudiparan
Rad Music International
One Happy Family - Community Center, Lesvos
Lesvos Solidarity - Mosaik Support Center
Μικρός Ντουνιάς - Mikros Dounias
and deep, deep thanks for the dear friends creating magic every day and a better world for all : Rouddy, Sahil Khan, Sylvie, Romain Langlois, Farhad and many more... and all the courageous children of Moria. Love from the deepest of my heart.
