After two years of daily communication and creative interaction with refugees, we perceive their real desires. We perceive what attracts their interest, activates positively to them both: mentally and psychologically, and finally what diminishes the sense of sadness. Generally, refugees prefer art and creativity. They like to pull a cloth, bind a book or plant a flower. In the RE.A.C.T program, refugees often gave shape to fabric simply by turning them into dresses and daggers. In the bookbinding workshop, they tied books, notebooks, jewelry, table games. They planted flowers to decorate their balconies through the action: “ let’s form  a garden”, multiplied plants and painted their pots, turning the YMCA rooms into a garden of colors, soil, smiles and childish voices.
Women from Afghanistan want to work for the women of their own country. They want to work, to economize themselves by offering grooming, hairdressing, fashion and nail painting to their compatriots. Their aesthetics are governed by intense compositions and exaggeration as well. Bright colors in their choices, lots of beads, glitter, sequences. This is their culture, that we respect and every day learn.

In the framework of the program, the students were provided with make-up and nail-painting courses with a high turnout and response.
Refugees want art, to learn our culture and to preserve their own.

Anna Magdalini Argyri