Visiting NEST’s Refugees Camp in 360 Mall

Nyamuswa

The first time I’ve ever heard the word “refugee” was on the 2nd of August 1990. I was standing with my distraught family in Heathrow Airport waiting to board a Kuwait Airways plane back to Kuwait after a summer vacation in Austria and London when a lady who worked in Heathrow informed us that there will be no Kuwait Airways counter, there is no Kuwait anymore, and that we were now “refugees”. I was ten, I barely spoke English, but the word Refugee stung like nothing I’ve heard before, bringing in a jumbled set of emotions: fear, loss, pain, profound sadness, all of which are bundled up snugly underneath a blanket of insecurity for whatever future we thought we had was erased in a blink.

I was considered a refugee during the 1990 invasion on Kuwait, but I was lucky to have a roof over my head, food on the table, clothes on my back, most of my family around me, and most importantly: an education. I was thrust into a British school where the teachers had to teach me the ABCD’s of English, quite literally, and after a few months I was transferred to the Kuwaiti section in King Fahad’s Academy in London. No one knew how long the Gulf war would last, it could have taken years, but providing a proper education for the children abroad was indeed a priority, because what future can you hope for any child if they weren’t provided with proper education?

Fast forward twenty four years and the world is still at war, only this time the world is watching Syria turn into ash. Its too painful to try and understand what’s happening, but the children now living in refugee camps are also left without an education. Not only do they live in dreadful living situations, but an education is a luxury they could barely afford when they can barely scrape together something to live on. Enter NEST, a non-profit organisation working with the Kuwaiti Red Crescent and dedicated to helping refugee students internationally and locally to have a chance at education. They started by sending me a plastic bag as an invitation with tagged with a card that said  “This is how refugee children carry their school books”.

Inside was a beautiful blank notebook with my blogs name engraved in blue Arabic calligraphy plus an invitation to the #Ghadi initiative in the Refugee Camps they had set up in 360 Mall. Refugee camp, you read that right!

What NEST is trying to do is emulate the actual Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan by simulating the way a little girl, Ghadi, which also means “My tomorrow”, who is living with her peers cramped in camp tents. There are actual tents, videos, life-sized pictures of children from the Zaatari camp, and real children walking around. They are not pretending that this is all there is to camp life, they are just trying to paint a very vivid picture for the simulated camp visitors of how life in a camp must feel like, on a level.

When I arrived at the doors of the exhibition hall of 360 Mall I was stopped at the checkpoint by an eager young NEST volunteer who explained to me what the experience is all about and informed me politely that photography wasn’t allowed inside in order not to ruin other exhibition visitors shock element plus let visitors concentrate on their visit without any distractions.

Do I need to tell you about my visit? No, you must go and experience it yourself. However, at the end of the visit and in a place where photography was allowed and you come to a panel with lots of children’s first names. Actual names of actual children in the Zaatari camp, many names, all awaiting the chance of a formal education.

You choose a child’s name, or more, and you get to sponsor either their transportation to school (20 KD per year) or the book fees (30 KD per year) or their school fees (50 KD per year). You could also pay a 100 KD and sponsor a child’s education for a year, a 100 KD very well spent indeed. All the money is handed to the Kuwaiti Red Crescent which is an organisation I personally would trust with my donations.

If you cannot sponsor a child, you can place whatever change you can spare in the donations box by the door, also by the Kuwaiti Red Crescent and it will all go to help out the refugee in their dire living situation.

The #Ghadi initiative is a great project by NEST Kuwait, quite different and bold, trying to make a difference in the world. Just because a child is living in a refugee camp doesn’t mean he shouldn’t continue his education. You never know what the future hold, that child when armed with an education might be the future surgeon who will save your life on his operating table.

The #Ghadi camp in 360 Mall is still on and will stay until Friday 21 February from 10 AM-2 PM and from 4 PM-10 PM. If you haven’t been there already please do and a friend of mine who went there and is a parent made a point of taking your children there to let them see how other children are suffering in the world. For more information you can check NEST’s website (link) or follow them on instagram (@NestKW).

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