A Refuge for a Refugee

Amidst the buzzing conversations and bustling children, there stands a beacon of peace and quiet:
The Social Café

Inside, it is as if the rest if the world stands still. Located in the corner of  the camp, the "café" is secluded and the jumbles of voices and childish giggles are drowned out by the distance. It houses the internet modem for the entire centre, which is aptly entitled 'Asylum'.

Filled entirely with women and children (at the time of my visit), there is paint chalk, and every other possible form of artistic supply scattered orderly around the room. If they are ever in want of anything additional, the café coordinator, Irena Radujevic, is the person who sees to it.

Irena is provided to the Krnjača Asylum Centre by the Divac Foundation in order to alleviate some of the hardships in the lives of the resident refugees through any form of art therapy. "A lot of people here are naturally talented, and I am amazed watching them create without any former formal artistic training." Irena has been learning Arabic and Farsi so as to best approach and communicate with all of the people.

Her star pupil, so to speak, is a 10 year-old boy from Afghanistan named Farhad Nouri, whose artwork has received raves of international praise.

His nickname is "Little Picasso".

Here are some examples of his work:

Our guide in the camp told us that they receive almost daily interest from individuals and even art galleries to attain or exhibit his work. The morning I visited, the camp director(s) were in the midst of conversations with a private art collector from Germany who wished to commission an artpiece from the young boy.

Farhad, his parents, and his two younger brothers hope to move to Switzerland or the United States so that the children can continue their education, but with increasingly militant EU borders and the escalating nativist sentiment in the US that culminated in the Trump Administration's infamous "Muslim Bans," the future is looking bleaker with each passing day.

Thanks to the joined efforts of the Divac Foundation and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Nouri family and countless other refugees within the camp have been learning English and Serbian, along with practical skills such as the operation of various computer-based systems.

Two teenage boys pictured in a room within the camp where refugees have access to provided computers.

Of all the things I saw, not just in the Social Café, but the entire Krnjača Asylum Centre, I adored the 'Complaint Boxes' the most. These anonymous boxes are in several places around the camp and are intended to provide those working in the camp with feedback and understanding of issues that the refugees are experiencing or witnessing, both inside and outside of the camps.

There are numerous copies of each Harry Potter book available on the shelves, in English, Arabic, and Farsi.

Who knows, maybe one day we'll see artwork by Farhad or one of the many other astoundingly gifted Krnjača residents hanging up in MoMA.*

*If you have the time I highly encourage you to read this New York Times article about the beautiful way that the Museum of Modern Art has protested the Trump Administration's entry ban.