April 25, 2018 - MEDU in Sicily
We had the opportunity to take a five-night, six-day trip to Sicily (Stay tuned for an upcoming post on the amazing things we were able to see and experience as tourists in Sicily!). For two and half days of the trip I (Mark) spent most of my time with the workers of MEDU's Ragusa, Sicily office.
During the summer, MEDU has traditionally had a presence in Pozzallo, a city on the southern coast of Sicily where most of the landings of refugees occur (it is actually further south than parts of Tunisia in Africa), so that they can help those who seem particularly traumatized at the time of landing. They also meet with refugees in therapy in their office in Ragusa. On Fridays they spend the whole day until about 7pm in Mineo, a small town in central Sicily where the largest refugee camp in Europe is located. In Mineo they provide therapy to refugees who struggle with PTSD and trauma.
MEDU has a staff that consists of a Coordinator of the projects in Sicily; two paid therapists who are at the level of PhD-level psychologists in the U.S., one of whom is also a psychiatrist (i.e., a medical doctor who is specially certified in psychiatric conditions); two paid cultural mediators (one from Gambia and one from Tunisia); a volunteer psychologist, and many other volunteers.
This is the office space MEDU uses at Mineo. Left to right: Nejla (cultural mediator for Arabic- and French-speaking patients/originally from Tunisia), Peppe (psychiatrist/psychologist), Ahmed (cultural mediator for English and several African languages/originally from Gambia), and Samuele (coordinator of MEDU's operations in Sicily). Their other two psychologists were away at a conference on this day.
I really enjoyed talking with all of the MEDU workers and seeing what they are doing in Sicily. I was deeply impressed with their passion for the work they are doing and their commitment to providing quality service to refugees. I was able to spend several hours with Anna Dessi (the other paid psychologist who is not pictured above) before she left for a conference. We discussed the group we have been creating in Rome, and she had several good ideas of ways that we could modify our plan to better meet the needs of the refugees. She seemed really excited about possibly doing something similar in Ragusa or Mineo. Peppe, initially seemed a little wary of me, but quickly warmed up, particularly as we talked about group work. We both lamented that I am not able to spend three months in Ragusa as I had originally planned. It would have been really fun to co-lead a group together.
I got to spend a lot of time with Samuele. He just started this job less than a month ago. He and his wife have been working with NGOs on projects that provide clean water, veterinary care, and similar aid in the poorest regions of Central America, Uganda, and Ethiopia for many years. For the first time in many years they have come back to live in Italy again (They are both originally from Torino/Turin, Italy.). I was impressed by his commitment and energy surrounding efforts to relieve suffering in the world.
I also talked for some time with Nejla and Ahmed about their personal experiences of coming to Italy and their experiences of mediating therapy sessions. I am amazed at people who have been through deeply troubling experiences who can then turn around and help others who are going through similar things. I was impressed by their ability to take care of themselves while listening to so many of others' traumatic experiences that certainly have the potential to be intensely triggering for themselves.
On Friday I spent the day with them in Mineo. As I mentioned above, the reception center for asylum seekers in Mineo is the largest refugee center in Europe. It officially holds about 2,600 people, but unofficial estimates are that it holds closer to 4,000 people.
Notice the police cars and Red Cross trucks all along the main street. The MEDU folks said that the police rarely leave the main street. They also said that they recently found out that, though there is a significant police presence during the day, there are only two officers present at night, including one who is required to stay in the front gate house. It seems like there is little control of what happens beyond the main street. They said that prostitution is rampant and that various other businesses are run out of individual homes.
There are dogs of all shapes and sizes (but mostly big) wandering all over the facility. They all seemed quite nice and were never menacing. They occasionally got into minor scuffles with each other, seemingly over turf.
Samuele and I walked around the neighborhood on either side of the main street a couple of times. I couldn't take pictures except for the few I have posted below.
The picture above is of people heading to the cafeteria where all meals are provided. Apparently, they used to let people cook their own food in their homes, but then put an end to that. All food is provided by a catering company. The picture below shows people playing soccer in the street, using overturned dumpsters as goals.
I had a lot of time to talk with MEDU workers and residents of the reception center. It is clear that the Italian government is doing the best it can to provide for the massive wave of refugees that has poured into the country for the past decade, but they are overwhelmed. Having such a large reception center seems problematic on multiple levels. It is completely isolated from any other significant civilization, and it is really just a holding facility. It was designed to hold people for less than 35 days as they were processed and then sent on to other, smaller facilities; however, some people have been here for years. Some people are able to work (some legally, some not) in local agriculture, but many are just waiting for paperwork to be processed that will decide whether they are permitted to stay in Italy and work or are deported back to their home country. The picture below shows how the system is supposed to work (I'm not sure it is visible enough to be much good.). If you really want more information, you can go to this LINK.
I heard many stories about refugees during the day. I thought two would be illustrative. I have changed names and have removed any identifying information.
o I was told the story of a man whose name was listed as “Abdul” (not the actual name that was listed). When they first greeted him, he said that it was not his real name. They asked him about this, and he explained that he had been kidnapped in Libya and held in a prison for many months as his captors waited for his family to provide ransom money. He said that the prison was so crowded that there was not room for people lie down at night. During the day he was hired out by his captors to work, basically as a slave, for a man who was physically cruel, making him complete hard physical labor while only providing bread and water. At night he was returned to the prison. One day, one of his prison mates named “Abdul” died during the night. In the morning, the guards called out for “Abdul” to come forward because his family had provided the money to release him. The client said that he realized that the only way for him to get out of the prison was for him to pretend to be “Abdul,” because his family had already spent all of their money paying a ransom for his brother and would never have the money to pay it for him too. He was able to get out by pretending to be “Abdul” and said that he would keep that name the rest of his life to respect what "Abdul" had done for him.
o During the day several people came to talk with MEDU folks. One stopped and talked with Samuele for quite a while in the driveway of the building where we were. After he left, Samuele became overcome with emotion as he tried to tell me that this young man had been through so much and was so upset that he could not say anything without breaking into tears. Samuele was clearly deeply impacted by this man’s pain and had to go in the bathroom for several minutes to compose himself.
These refugees have been through so much! It is heart-breaking to feel that there is so little that can be done in the face of such great pain and need. It feels really wrong to simply house people, even if it is far better than where so many are living in Rome.
As we drove home to Ragusa (It is about an hour-long drive.), we talked about what the MEDU workers do for self-care as they deal in these matters every day. We also talked about how important it is to increase awareness about what is going on. They could not believe it when I told them that hardly anyone in the U.S. knows about African refugees. It is so easy for us to become insulated from what is happening in the rest of the world and to not see our part in others' suffering!
During the summer, MEDU has traditionally had a presence in Pozzallo, a city on the southern coast of Sicily where most of the landings of refugees occur (it is actually further south than parts of Tunisia in Africa), so that they can help those who seem particularly traumatized at the time of landing. They also meet with refugees in therapy in their office in Ragusa. On Fridays they spend the whole day until about 7pm in Mineo, a small town in central Sicily where the largest refugee camp in Europe is located. In Mineo they provide therapy to refugees who struggle with PTSD and trauma.
MEDU has a staff that consists of a Coordinator of the projects in Sicily; two paid therapists who are at the level of PhD-level psychologists in the U.S., one of whom is also a psychiatrist (i.e., a medical doctor who is specially certified in psychiatric conditions); two paid cultural mediators (one from Gambia and one from Tunisia); a volunteer psychologist, and many other volunteers.
This is the office space MEDU uses at Mineo. Left to right: Nejla (cultural mediator for Arabic- and French-speaking patients/originally from Tunisia), Peppe (psychiatrist/psychologist), Ahmed (cultural mediator for English and several African languages/originally from Gambia), and Samuele (coordinator of MEDU's operations in Sicily). Their other two psychologists were away at a conference on this day.
I really enjoyed talking with all of the MEDU workers and seeing what they are doing in Sicily. I was deeply impressed with their passion for the work they are doing and their commitment to providing quality service to refugees. I was able to spend several hours with Anna Dessi (the other paid psychologist who is not pictured above) before she left for a conference. We discussed the group we have been creating in Rome, and she had several good ideas of ways that we could modify our plan to better meet the needs of the refugees. She seemed really excited about possibly doing something similar in Ragusa or Mineo. Peppe, initially seemed a little wary of me, but quickly warmed up, particularly as we talked about group work. We both lamented that I am not able to spend three months in Ragusa as I had originally planned. It would have been really fun to co-lead a group together.
I got to spend a lot of time with Samuele. He just started this job less than a month ago. He and his wife have been working with NGOs on projects that provide clean water, veterinary care, and similar aid in the poorest regions of Central America, Uganda, and Ethiopia for many years. For the first time in many years they have come back to live in Italy again (They are both originally from Torino/Turin, Italy.). I was impressed by his commitment and energy surrounding efforts to relieve suffering in the world.
I also talked for some time with Nejla and Ahmed about their personal experiences of coming to Italy and their experiences of mediating therapy sessions. I am amazed at people who have been through deeply troubling experiences who can then turn around and help others who are going through similar things. I was impressed by their ability to take care of themselves while listening to so many of others' traumatic experiences that certainly have the potential to be intensely triggering for themselves.
On Friday I spent the day with them in Mineo. As I mentioned above, the reception center for asylum seekers in Mineo is the largest refugee center in Europe. It officially holds about 2,600 people, but unofficial estimates are that it holds closer to 4,000 people.
The column headings at the top of the page say: Nation, Men, Women, Minor men, Minor women, Nuclear families, and Total.
The reception center at Mineo is a former U.S. military housing facility for a nearby base (about 30 miles away), so after you get past the Italian soldiers with machine guns and an armored vehicle at the front gate, it kind of looks like a boring suburban neighborhood of cookie-cutter homes in America, except that it is surrounded by really beautiful, green, rolling, Sicilian hills and the medieval city of Mineo high up on a hill in the distance. It has been a refugee reception center since 2011.
As in the past when I have visited places that people live, I tried to be careful about how I take pictures so as not to offend. Therefore, I have some pictures, but none are particularly great, because I was trying to take them discretely.
The main road as you enter the facility houses the police, the Red Cross, and several administrative offices. MEDU uses one of the buildings (formerly a home) assigned to the Red Cross the rest of the week. They basically have two rooms in which to meet with refugees, neither of which has a door. The two rooms are only separated by a tall cabinet they put in the opening between the two rooms. Not much confidentiality, really.
While the therapists are meeting with people, the rest of us waited out in the carport and talked with people who came seeking information or treatment. Below is a picture of Samuele getting information from a new patient (again, not the best for confidentiality). Behind Samuele the tented carport is the "waiting area" for a mothers' medical clinic. There were women with babies coming in and out of there all day long.
Notice the police cars and Red Cross trucks all along the main street. The MEDU folks said that the police rarely leave the main street. They also said that they recently found out that, though there is a significant police presence during the day, there are only two officers present at night, including one who is required to stay in the front gate house. It seems like there is little control of what happens beyond the main street. They said that prostitution is rampant and that various other businesses are run out of individual homes.
There are dogs of all shapes and sizes (but mostly big) wandering all over the facility. They all seemed quite nice and were never menacing. They occasionally got into minor scuffles with each other, seemingly over turf.
Samuele and I walked around the neighborhood on either side of the main street a couple of times. I couldn't take pictures except for the few I have posted below.
The picture above is of people heading to the cafeteria where all meals are provided. Apparently, they used to let people cook their own food in their homes, but then put an end to that. All food is provided by a catering company. The picture below shows people playing soccer in the street, using overturned dumpsters as goals.
I had a lot of time to talk with MEDU workers and residents of the reception center. It is clear that the Italian government is doing the best it can to provide for the massive wave of refugees that has poured into the country for the past decade, but they are overwhelmed. Having such a large reception center seems problematic on multiple levels. It is completely isolated from any other significant civilization, and it is really just a holding facility. It was designed to hold people for less than 35 days as they were processed and then sent on to other, smaller facilities; however, some people have been here for years. Some people are able to work (some legally, some not) in local agriculture, but many are just waiting for paperwork to be processed that will decide whether they are permitted to stay in Italy and work or are deported back to their home country. The picture below shows how the system is supposed to work (I'm not sure it is visible enough to be much good.). If you really want more information, you can go to this LINK.
I heard many stories about refugees during the day. I thought two would be illustrative. I have changed names and have removed any identifying information.
o I was told the story of a man whose name was listed as “Abdul” (not the actual name that was listed). When they first greeted him, he said that it was not his real name. They asked him about this, and he explained that he had been kidnapped in Libya and held in a prison for many months as his captors waited for his family to provide ransom money. He said that the prison was so crowded that there was not room for people lie down at night. During the day he was hired out by his captors to work, basically as a slave, for a man who was physically cruel, making him complete hard physical labor while only providing bread and water. At night he was returned to the prison. One day, one of his prison mates named “Abdul” died during the night. In the morning, the guards called out for “Abdul” to come forward because his family had provided the money to release him. The client said that he realized that the only way for him to get out of the prison was for him to pretend to be “Abdul,” because his family had already spent all of their money paying a ransom for his brother and would never have the money to pay it for him too. He was able to get out by pretending to be “Abdul” and said that he would keep that name the rest of his life to respect what "Abdul" had done for him.
o During the day several people came to talk with MEDU folks. One stopped and talked with Samuele for quite a while in the driveway of the building where we were. After he left, Samuele became overcome with emotion as he tried to tell me that this young man had been through so much and was so upset that he could not say anything without breaking into tears. Samuele was clearly deeply impacted by this man’s pain and had to go in the bathroom for several minutes to compose himself.
These refugees have been through so much! It is heart-breaking to feel that there is so little that can be done in the face of such great pain and need. It feels really wrong to simply house people, even if it is far better than where so many are living in Rome.
As we drove home to Ragusa (It is about an hour-long drive.), we talked about what the MEDU workers do for self-care as they deal in these matters every day. We also talked about how important it is to increase awareness about what is going on. They could not believe it when I told them that hardly anyone in the U.S. knows about African refugees. It is so easy for us to become insulated from what is happening in the rest of the world and to not see our part in others' suffering!
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