My journey through RefVoice
I had the idea to create a web-platform that would enable refugees to express themselves while I was watching a documentary about a year ago. Now I proudly find myself filming my own short-documentary with a Syrian photographer for the platform I have created. Baptising this project was easy. From the very first moment I knew the name would be RefVoice.
Ref is an abbreviation for “refugees”. What is a refugee? A person fleeing from their country, searching for a better life. In this century refugees happen to be mostly Syrians and Afghans. But that wasn’t always the case. For some of us our grandfathers were from Izmir. They were refugees too. If we look closely in our country’s family tree we will discover many refugees and immigrants. Besides, especially when you are a student in Greece the chances to end up an immigrant yourself one day are rather high.
Last year I met several refugees while I was searching for potential users. At the beginning I was on my own. I didn’t know where to start from, so I started visiting camps and other places where refugees live, like City Plaza. I took some interviews and I learned many interesting things. I will never forget all these wonderful people that were willing to share their story with me, overcoming the fear of the unknown. But something was missing from my interviews. After a few weeks I had learned by heart the route that most of the refugees follow to come to Greece. It was the same story with different names. Probably my users thought the same, since the views of the stories were relatively low. I had to do something.
That was when I found out there was a lesson about social issues and social innovation. “Dare to challenge” was a really eye-opening experience for me. I had to brainwash all over again along with my new team and rearrange our target more than one time. We experimented with many forms of art and journalism. We also experimented with different people from different cultural backgrounds. All in all we dared to challenge.
As Malala mentioned in her speech, there are times when a story is worth-telling not because it is unique, but because it is not. RefVoice will keep telling stories of refugees and promoting their work. Even if the journey is the same, every single story is still worth-telling. During “Dare to challenge” I found the secret ingredient that was missing from my project: variety. Some refugees like to write. Others prefer to draw. Others love photography. Every person has a form of art that applies to them.
Rashed is a nice example of this variety. He is a Syrian photographer who lives in Greece and can speak Greek fluently. But there are no words that can transmit a message the way his photographs communicate with the spectator. Therefore I decided to visualize his story. We wrote the script together and filmed a short documentary about his life, his views on various subjects and his photographs. During this process I decided what exactly I wanted to do in my life: filming documentaries.
A friend of mine, Asimina Dionysopoulou, who studies in the Cinema Department of Thessaloniki Fine Arts University, helped as director of photography. We filmed the documentary in Plaka. The shooting went well, we did a good job and we also had fun. I think the highlight was Rashed’s Syrian sweets that were really tasty. Rashed is a kind fatherly man. He is a serious person, but he can also be very funny. We collaborated perfectly.
Another thing I have learned is dealing with difficult situations. When you organise something big depending on so many people it is certain that something will go wrong. Filming my first documentary was like jumping in an ocean without knowing how to swim. First reaction: panic. The initial idea was to film the documentary in Panteion studio’s green room. A misunderstanding happened and we ended up outside the studio with all the equipment needed, but without keys to enter the building. Panic however only drugs you down to the bottom of the ocean. I had to remain calm and creative. I had to come up with something fast. “We will film the documentary outside.” I said.
And that was it. Suddenly I was floating and what looked like a turbulent ocean became a peaceful sea. We found a quiet beautiful street near the studio and filmed the documentary there. To my surprise, the residents of the neighborhood in which we invaded with our cameras were very hospitable. We thought they would ask us to leave. On the contrary, they were kindly curious about our documentary. At some point an old lady opened her window and offered us some water. When I went home and watched some shots, I discovered that it looked way better than I had imagined due to the natural light.
Through “Dare to challenge” I became more confident not only about our project, but also about myself. Moreover, I discovered the importance of analysing all those blur points in your idea. RefVoice was complete from an ideological point of view, but the lack of a proper business plan and value proposition lead to an unsustainable future. After several hours of discussion over a laptop I am glad to announce that we have solved this problem.
Special thanks to my team!
Our Medium Publication:
Our Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/RefVoice/?fref=ts
Our official page:
Team members: Mary Bouli, Stavroula Pollatou, Maria Vasilakou
