A Place of Solace: The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center
“Life in Italy as a homeless refugee is very, very hard…When people think of Italy, they think of the Colosseum, and bowls of spaghetti, which is one side of Rome. They don’t think of the men who sleep on cardboard who are traumatized and have absolutely nothing and very little hope of gaining something in their life. They want to help people living in Africa, Asia or Turkey, but actually having lived in many countries around the world, there are people who are here who have given everything to come, and sadly when they come, it is not what they thought it would be. Their destitution is as bad as it is in Kenya…People think it is Europe, or it is Italy, it is fine…but it is not fine, at all” — Annika Stanley, Fundraising and Programs Coordinator at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center
The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, based in the basement of an American Episcopal Church in Rome, Italy, is a sanctuary for thousands of homeless refugees each year. Each day, the center opens at 8:30 AM by Pierro, one of the center’s staff. He plays multiple roles as a social worker, a mediator when there is conflict, and also registers all the refugees who come through the center. He is one of the 5 staff members along with the 60 volunteers that help keep the center running each year.
After the center opens, breakfast is served, and the supply rooms are opened. With 250 refugees coming in each day, they often run out of supplies quickly. ach individual is allotted 2 toothbrushes, 2 pairs of socks, and 2 pairs of underwear per month. They are allowed 8 pairs of clothing, all of which are donated by people in Rome. Since many arrive without decent shoes, they are given sneakers as well.
Toiletries are also provided by the center. Because they have a limited budget, guests share everything from shaving foam, deodorant, lotion to toothpaste while soaps are given out. With most of the refugees living on the streets, the center is where they come to freshen up and find solace. They use the center for the bathrooms, to shave, wash themselves, wash their clothing, go to the TV area, or sleep.
On the streets, refugees are often racially targeted, so they live anxiously and are constantly on alert. Due to robberies and the cold nights, they are unable to get a good night’s sleep and in addition, it is common to have their phones stolen. When they lose their phones, they often lose the only photographs they have of the place they came from and it is often the only way they have to keep in contact with their families. When they are able, the center also gives out basic phones.
As Annika Stanley, the fundraising and program coordinator took me through a normal day at the center, I was stunned at the amount of work this small grassroots organization is doing.With two decades of experience working with migrants, refugees, and in the world of food justice, Annika brings heart and passion to her work, and graciously spent time answering my questions about her work.
Why were there so many refugees living in the streets? How did they get to Rome of all places? What is happening in their countries that forced them to leave?
Most refugees that come into the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center are political refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Libya, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. When they come into Italy, they are registered and placed in a living facility. After 6–12 months they are put into another center, similar to dormitories, where they are, as Annika said, “in theory, supposed to learn Italian and integrate.”However, during the day they are thrown out and at times it takes longer than the months they are given in order to fully integrate.
“Most people don’t learn the language and many people are evicted from the centers and then don’t have any place to live. They are basically thrown onto the street,” she said.
When refugees come to the center, they are not just provided with basic necessities. The center currently runs two levels of English classes and two levels of Italian classes. They run a job clinic twice a week and have 6 to 7 volunteers who interview refugees and create resumes for them. Additionally, with a database of jobs, they are able to connect refugees with employers in the area.
Mosts of the guests have been through traumatic experiences throughout their lives or throughout their journey getting to Europe, so the center has a psychotherapy team who offers art therapy once a week, music therapy, and individual talk therapy. There are also other activities such as table tennis, foosball tables, chess boards, a library full of books, and cards.
Of course, the center offerings don’t just stop there. They assist in legal aid, helping individuals get their paperwork and trying to do what they can to ensure some have the opportunity to go back to school or find apartments to stay in.
Annika shared a number of stories with me which struck me and urged me to question why, in many parts of the world, we are sheltered from these events on a day to day basis. Each day, there are refugee families resettling in western countries around the world. Little do we know of their stories, although they are our brothers and sisters living in our own backyards. In conclusion, I would like to leave you with one of these Annika shared with me of one mother’s journey to Italy:
“We find people who come through The (Joel Nafuma Refugee) Center have been through very harrowing experiences. A mother of two children. I got to know her recently. She is a widow of 3 years. She is from Mali. She heard you can go to Europe and everything will be great there. She sold everything she had and paid a trafficker to bring her and her 2 children up on the normal route, through Tunisia and Libya. She said it was an absolutely appalling journey. She said if she knew what it was like, she would have never done it. She has a daughter who is 14 and a little girl who is 6. When they got to Libya they were thrown into one of the detention centers. They were allowed to stay together, but she was terrified for her daughter. She was told the young women were being sold into sex trafficking. She was very nervous- many were being raped she told me. She was telling her daughter to look dirty, and a bit crazy…ugly and deliberately look like that. They didn’t stay there for too long and were sent to a coastal area. There were thousands of Africans there…she couldn’t believe how many Africans were there. Then they were taken to the beach after a number of days, taken to the shore and they saw the boats. Her daughter said very loudly, “I’m not getting on that boat. No way” There were Arabs all around her, Libyans (they call them Arabs), who were being very aggressive and using the butt of their guns to push people down to the boats. She saw one man who was refusing to get on the boat, so they shot him right in the head, right in front of everyone. Then they dragged his body off down next to the sea. She said to her daughter, “you are getting on that boat”. Then her daughter started crying and the Arab came up to them and said, “What is wrong with her?”. And she said “Nothing, I don’t think you understand our language, we’re fine… there is nothing wrong with her”. So they got on the boat, and she said she had to sit with her knees up to her chin and people all around her squeezed in on her. They set off and it was terrible. Everyone was crying, lots of people were screaming. Anyone moved, the whole boat would move. They sat on that boat for 2 days and didn’t have anything. She said she thought her daughter was going to die. They had a couple of bottles of water which they quickly ran out of. They drifted on the sea, and seemed to be drifting. Then the boat started to split in half…I guess the dinghys aren’t strong. She said there was 150 people on there and the sign said 48. The threading was breaking and it started to split and there started to have a hole appear, and they tried to get the water out. People started to scream. Then a rescue boat actually found them and by the time the boat actually passed them life jackets, she had already watched people die from drowning. She was holding onto her children, and said, “If we are dying, we are all dying. I am not leaving any of you”. The rescue boat picked them up as she watched men drowning right in front of her, grabbing her, pulling her. She is quite a big lady, she is probably quite strong. There were small newborn babies that had drown, small children. She said she saw people drifting off and just drowning. She said the waves were huge and they picked them up…she couldn’t believe all her children were alive. She was really shocked. She said when she got in the boat she collapsed completely. She didn’t the remember the journey to Italy. She said was taken to the hospital and was kept there for 4 weeks apparently. She was put into one of the centers and now she is up here in Rome. They call it a camp, but it is a facility and she has a room with her 2 kids. They go to school and her 6 year old actually speaks very good Italian. The mother, she comes to the center sometimes and comes in, sometimes she looks for clothes in the center. She is nice, but extremely regrets having done this. She had no idea what it was going to be and she had no idea she would risk her kids like that. I asked her what if she went back to Mali, she said, “I wouldn’t go back, I have nothing in Mali now, nothing at all”. She sold everything she had…her house, her land, everything is gone. She said, “What would I go back to?” People don’t realize, they say, “oh well why don’t they go back home?” But they have spent everything they have, all their family’s money to come. They have nothing to go back to, so why would she do that?”
You can buy items for the refugees for Joel Nafuma Refugee Center from the NeedsList store through their list here.
*some facts have been altered to protect identities
